B01.01 CSS - W912HQ24R0017 - dated 2024.10.02.docx

Combined Synopsis/Solicitation Number: W912HQ24R0017 Title: Commercial World Fleet Vessel Register Data & Information for Application to Data Verification & Analysis in Support of the Waterborne Navigation Program of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE)

I. GENERAL INFORMATION

This is a combined synopsis/solicitation for commercial items prepared in accordance with the format in FAR 12.603 – Streamlined Solicitation for Commercial Items, as supplemented with additional information included in this notice and FAR Part 13 procedures. This announcement constitutes the only solicitation. Offers are being requested and a written solicitation will not be issued. This solicitation document and incorporated provisions and clauses are those in effect through Federal Acquisition Circular 2024-03, dated 23 February 2024.

A Firm Fixed Priced (FFP) award will be made in accordance with the following:

This acquisition is being solicited unrestricted and is open to both small businesses and other than small businesses. The North American Industrial Classification System (NAICS) code for this acquisition is 519210 Libraries and Archives: with a size standard of $21.0M.

II. NATURE OF ACQUISITION:

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Institute for Water Resources (IWR) has a requirement to purchase the services stated below. This procurement will be awarded under Simplified Acquisition Procedures for Commercial Services. All questions must be received by Thursday 10 October 2024, 4:30 pm eastern US. Proposals must be received no later than Monday 21 October 2024, 4:30 pm eastern US. Electronic proposals submitted via email are required.

All questions and proposals shall be sent to the Contract Specialist, Mrs. Quan Nguyen at email Quan.Nguyen@usace.army.mil and a copy furnished to the Contracting Officer, Mr. David A. Kaplan at email: David.A.Kaplan@usace.army.mil.

It is the Offeror’s responsibility to ensure the proposal has been received by the contracting office via email. Fax proposals will not be accepted. Late proposals will be processed in accordance with FAR 52.212-1(f) “Late submission, modifications, revisions, and withdrawals of offers.” Upon receipt of the electronic offer, the Government will acknowledge receipt of that offer via email to the Offeror.

III. SCHEDULE OF SUPPLIES/SERVICES:

Background:

The Waterborne Commerce Statistics Center (IWR-WCSC, New Orleans, Louisiana) of the capital region office of Institute for Water Resources (IWR-WRC, Alexandria, Virginia) of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) compiles, processes, and analyzes data and information for waterborne transportation and associated trade, and affiliated services involved with the conduct of both domestic and foreign trade critical to the economy of the United States. The data and information assembled by WCSC and IWR are employed in the engineering and economic evaluation of Federally-sponsored waterway improvements for coastal harbors and deep-draft approach channels and waterways in addition to internal or inland waterway(s) systems. Such improvements include placement of new general navigation features (GNFs) such as channels or vessel maneuvering areas and enhancements to existing features. Enhancements may include deepening and enlargement of maneuvering areas to accommodate evolving changes in vessel or fleet characteristics and fleet service regime driven by trade and demand for supporting waterborne transport. In the same contexts of evaluation of new GNFs or related enhancements, subject data and information is also routinely employed to inform agency (USACE) decisions for management of operation(s) and maintenance (O&M) within the framework of budgetary and fiscal resource constraints of the agency’s waterborne navigation program.

Part of the information essential to waterway system evaluations includes the specifications of vessels including vessel type, physical dimensions, capacities, and other characteristics, including (but not necessarily limited to) age, powering and immersion. The WCSC employs this data and information to help verify the identity of vessels with linkage of vessel and trade tonnage movements to develop a more complete profile of trade statistics used for decision making and evaluations of waterway system projects. Analysts at IWR and in the field use described information to conduct economic and engineering evaluations to assess the feasibility and economic return of new construction, physical improvements or enhancements, and O&M initiatives based on transportation cost efficiencies made possible by such measures, such as or including loading and operating vessels more efficiently than would otherwise be possible (without specified improvements or enhancements).

Deliverables and Schedule.

The specifications for coverage of the database downloads provided will extend to all commercial vessels (cargo and otherwise) of any or all sizes covered by the vendor’s vessel register. Three (3) general realms of coverage are specified for vessel data register acquisition.

These are and extend to all vessels carried and inventoried, and to be made available:

- a.) the active\temporarily inactive or live vessel database (to be provided for both IWR-WCSC and IWR-WRC),

- b.) newbuilds as made available by corresponding monthly update (to be provided for both IWR-WCSC and IWR-WRC);

- c.) the database of vessels assessed as fully inactive or permanently withdrawn from service including those broken or lost (dead ships register database; all specified fields as applicable or to the extent available; to be provided only to IWR-WRC) and

- d.) the vessels on-order database (to be provided only to IWR-WRC)

Period of Performance: The period of performance will include one base year and four (4) one-year option periods.

Place of Performance:

The Offeror’s facility. See the Purchase Description (PD) for additional information.

IV. BASIS FOR AWARD

All offers will be comparatively evaluated based on the factors described below: Technical, Past Performance and Price.

FACTOR 1 – TECHNICAL:

The Offeror must submit a technical proposal detailing the capability to provide the data as specified in the attached Purchase Description. The Offeror must limit their technical proposal to no more than thirty (30) typed pages. Key personnel resumes are encouraged and may be included. Key personnel resumes do not count against the page limitation. Key personnel resumes are limited to no more than 2 pages each.

Factor 1, “Technical Understanding and Approach”: The offeror’s proposal will be evaluated to determine the offeror’s understanding the requirement and ability to provide data as specified in the Purchase Description. The offeror’s proposal submitted in response to the solicitation shall be evaluated on the depth and breadth of the data that can be provided and the demonstrated ability to provide this data throughout the period of performance without interruption.

Factor 2 “Past Performance”: The offeror’s past performance will be reviewed to determine recency, relevancy, and the quality of performance on the past contracts. The Government will evaluate the offeror’s record of past and current performance to ascertain the probability of successfully performing the required efforts of the PWS.

Factor 3 “Price”: The resulting award will be a firm fixed-price contract. Price reasonableness will be used for evaluation. The price factor will be evaluated using the price analysis techniques described at FAR 15.404-1, consisting of comparison of competitive offers received in response to the solicitation and comparison to the independent government cost estimate (IGE).

Grand Total

Prices must show the total price per year to provide the required data in accordance with the PD. This requirement will be awarded as a firm-fixed price contract.

The Government intends to award a contract without discussions with respective offerors. Offerors shall submit sufficient information and, in the format, specified in the Proposal Preparation Instructions. Offerors may be asked to clarify certain aspects of their offer (e.g., the relevance of technical capability information).

Factor 1 “Technical Understanding and Approach will be evaluated using the following combined technical/risk adjectival ratings:

Combined Technical/Risk Ratings:

Color Rating Adjectival Rating

Description

Factor 2 “Past performance” for the previous three years will be evaluated in accordance with FAR 15.305(a)(2) and the DoD Source Selection Manual. The criteria to establish relevancy will be stated in the solicitation. Consideration will be given to those aspects of an offeror’s contract history that would give the greatest ability to predict whether the offeror will satisfy the current requirement. The Government will use data provided in the offeror’s proposal and data obtained from other sources, such as the Contractor Performance Assessment Reporting System (CPARS). In the case where an offeror does not have record of relevant past performance or for whom information on past performance is not available or so sparse that no meaningful past performance rating can be reasonably assigned, the offeror may not be evaluated favorably or unfavorably on past performance in accordance with FAR 15.305(a)(2)(iv). Therefore, the offeror shall be determined to have unknown past performance. Offerors determined to have unknown past performance will receive a neutral rating. Past Performance will be evaluated on relevancy and confidence using the following ratings:

a. Past Performance Relevancy Ratings:

b. Past Performance Confidence Assessments

No Confidence

Based on offeror’s recent/relevant performance record, the Government has no expectation that the offeror will successfully perform the required effort.

Factor 3 “Price” will not be rated but will be evaluated to determine whether it is reasonable. Price reasonableness will be determined through price analysis techniques as described in FAR 15.404-1(b). The Government may determine that an offer is unacceptable and may be rejected if the prices are significantly unbalanced.

Importance of Evaluation Factors Factor 1 “Technical Understanding and Approach” is more important than Factor 2 “Past Performance”.

The non-price factors, when combined, are approximately equal to price.

V. QUOTE PREPARATION INSTRUCTIONS

52.212-1 Addendum – Instructions to Offerors – Commercial Items To ensure timely and equitable evaluation of quotes, offerors must comply with instructions contained herein. Offers must be complete, detailed and respond directly to the requirements of this solicitation.

a. Interested parties capable of providing the requirement must submit a signed and dated offer on company letterhead with unit prices, extended prices, discount terms, tax identification number, CAGE code, and SAM Unique Identifier in response to this solicitation. The requirements of this synopsis/solicitation, including specification, "Schedule of Supplies/Services" and terms and conditions, the offeror agrees to all solicitation requirements. Offerors must clearly identify any exception to the solicitation terms and conditions and provide complete accompanying rationale.

b. All offer information shall be emailed to the Contract Specialist and Contracting Officer detailed above. The offer must be signed and dated by an authorized official of the company. Electronic submissions via e-mail are required.

c. For Service Contracts: Offerors must provide additional price information for price analysis. In addition to the subtotal for each Task and the total price to complete the required services; supplemental price information must include the hourly rate (fully burdened) proposed for each labor category and the quantity of labor hours per each labor category per each task.

d. To be eligible to receive an award resulting from this Combined Synopsis Solicitation, Contractors must be registered in the System for Award Management (SAM) database, no exceptions. To register, please visit http://www.sam.gov.

e. Offer Content: See section IV – Factor 1 - 3, above

VI. CONTRACT TERMS AND CONDITIONS:

The following provisions and clauses apply to this acquisition and can be viewed electronically at https://www.acquisition.gov/ in accordance with 52.252-1. The use in this solicitation of any Department of Defense Federal Acquisition Regulation Supplement (48 CFR Chapter 2) provision with an authorized deviation is indicated by the addition of "(DEVIATION)" after the name of the regulation.

The Following Provisions and Clauses Are Incorporated By Reference:

The Following Provisions and Clauses Are Incorporated by Full Text:

FAR 52.212-2: Evaluation -- Commercial Items The Government will award a contract resulting from this solicitation to the responsible offeror whose offer conforming to the solicitation will be most advantageous to the Government, price and other factors considered. The following factors shall be used to evaluate offers:

(i) Technical Understanding and Approach

(ii) Past Performance

(iii) Price

Factor 1 “Technical Understanding and Approach” is more important than Factor 2 “Past Performance”.

The non-price factors, when combined, are approximately equal to price.

A written notice of award or acceptance of an offer, mailed or otherwise furnished to the successful offeror within the time for acceptance specified in the offer, shall result in a binding contract without further action by either party. Before the offer’s specified expiration time, the Government may accept an offer (or part of an offer), whether or not there are negotiations after its receipt, unless a written notice of withdrawal is received before award.

FAR 52.212-3 ALT I Offeror Representations and Certifications -- Commercial Items is incorporated by reference in this combine synopsis and solicitation. Offerors must include a statement that certifies the Offeror’s Representations and Certifications are up to date in System for Award management.

FAR 52.212-5 Contract Terms and Conditions Required to Implement Statutes or Executive Orders.

The following FAR Clauses cited within FAR 52.212-5 are applicable to this acquisition:

The following FAR and DFARS Clauses are applicable to this acquisition in addition to those above in the table for clauses within FAR 52.212-5.