Attachment_5_Additional_Instructions.pdf

Solicitation HQ0034-14-R-0035 Attachment 5 Additional Instructions 2 May 2014

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General Proposal Requirements All proposals must unconditionally accept all solicitation terms and conditions without any deviations, conditions or red-lines. Proposals that contain exceptions, conditions, red-lines or other deviations from the RFP’s terms shall render the entire proposal unacceptable and ineligible for award.

Deadline for Receipt of Questions from Prospective Offerors Potential offerors may submit questions, in writing, regarding any aspect of this solicitation by email to wendy.r.schermerhorn.civ@mail.mil, copying samia.c.bingham.civ@mail.mil.

Telephone inquiries will not be entertained. All questions must be received no later than 2:00 PM Eastern two weeks prior to the solicitation closing date.

Proposal Content

The Government reserves the right to not evaluate or consider any incomplete proposal. An incomplete proposal is defined as one that is lacking the information required below. An incomplete proposal may be considered unacceptable by the Government. Offerors shall assume that the Government has no prior knowledge of their facilities and experience and will base its evaluation on the information presented in the offeror’s proposal.

Volume 1: Technical Proposal

1) Proposal Contents. All proposals must clearly and convincingly demonstrate that the offeror has a thorough understanding of the requirements and associated risks, and is able, willing, and competent to devote the resources necessary to meet or exceed the requirements. The technical proposal must demonstrate an ability to comply with all requirements in the solicitation. General statements that the offeror can or will comply with the requirements, that standard procedures will be used, that well known techniques will be used, or paraphrases of the RFP’s Performance Work Statement (PWS), will not constitute compliance.

Offeror shall address their technical capability to adequately perform the requirements set forth in the PWS. At a minimum, the proposal shall provide information supporting the offeror’s ability to meet contract requirements in the areas listed below.

Area Specific Instructions Adequacy, Feasibility, and Technical Merit

Provide an overview of the offeror’s methods and approaches to be employed for delivering quality environmental services to the National Capital Region as described in the PWS. Discuss proposed methods to accomplish all of the tasks identified as well as an overall concept for performing the work. Discuss proposed subcontracting, if any.

Technical Experience Summarize the offeror’s relevant experience and qualification in providing the environmental mailto:wendy.r.schermerhorn.civ@mail.mil mailto:samia.c.bingham.civ@mail.mil

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Include the offeror’s experience relating to the oversight of environmentally sensitive areas, working under high-level security procedures and guidelines.

Key Personnel Refer to the requirements listed in clause AD.9, Key Personnel. Provide resumes and any relevant certifications of key personnel. Provide signed letters of commitment for each key personnel whose resume is submitted. This criterion shall be rated on a pass/fail basis.

Organizational Structure Describe the offeror’s organizational structure proposed for managing this contract. Provide organizational charts. The organizational structure shall clearly show key personnel and lines of authority/responsibility, listing position titles, names, and years of relevant experience.

Discuss the availability of key personnel, the number of available employees the offeror intends to assign and dedicate to this contract, and the role off-site management will play. Include current certifications/licenses relevant to this contract. Describe ability to obtain and retain key personnel. Provide a discussion of the offeror’s employee training program.

Quality Control Provide a Quality Control Plan specific to this contract to include industry standards that will be required for this project.

Health and Safety Provide a Health and Safety Plan that outlines the approach for ensuring a safe environment for both contractor personnel and other in or around a particular site.

Ability of Organization to Respond to Problems

Summarize the offeror’s ability, availability, and strategies to respond to problems, mitigate risk, and maintain performance. Describe ability to maintain performance during an event out of the offeror’s control such as inclement weather, security events, emergency situations, closures, et cetera, that could impact work or require rescheduling.

Task Order 0001, Attachment 2

Summarize the offeror’s proposed approach to accomplishing the work in solicitation attachment 2.

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2) Proposal Length. The Technical Proposal must not exceed 75 pages, single-sided, excluding foldouts, blank pages, title pages, tab indices and table of contents. Each page shall be 8 ½ x 11 inches, double-spaced, 12-point font, with one (1) inch margin requirements. Plans and Drawing are not included in the 75-page limit. Pages shall be numbered and paragraphs identified by commonly used and consistent system to assist in referencing specific areas of the proposal. Pages shall also have a header or footer that contains at a minimum, contractor name and solicitation number. Enclosures must be identified on all pages. Pages that exceed the page limit shall be removed from the proposal and not considered or evaluated.

Volume II: Price Proposal

1) There is no page limit for this volume.

2) The price proposal shall consist of the following.

a) Completed and signed SF1449.

b) Written acknowledgement of all amendments that may be associated with this solicitation.

c) Complete the pricing sheets in Attachment 9, Proposed Pricing. For each labor category, provide a fully loaded hourly rate for the base and all option periods (a total of five, twelve-month periods). This information shall be incorporated into the successful offeror’s contract as an attachment and will form the basis of pricing task orders.

d) Price Proposal for Task Order 0001, Attachment 2. This shall include the appropriate labor categories, hours, and pricing. The pricing must match that of paragraph (c), above. The pricing provided by the successful offeror for Task Order 0001 shall be used in the first task order of the resulting contract.

e) Professional employee compensation plan. Offerors shall provide a PECP in accordance with FAR 52.222-46, Evaluation Of Compensation For Professional Employees. The PECP shall identify and discuss wages, salaries, and fringe benefits for professional employees and non-exempt service employees for both the prime and subcontractors. It shall address the requirements of the Service Contract Act and commit to the compliance of all wage determinations. Your PECP shall include the following:

i. Provide your company’s salary range for each labor classification identified. Salary ranges should also reflect the impact of employment tenure. Describe planned escalations for exempt and non-exempt employees.

ii. Identify “Fringe Benefits”, and which are applicable to the employees identified, any differences in site location should be annotated. Adjacent to the fringe benefits to be provided, indicate the company’s cost of the fringe benefit, what percent the cost is of payroll, and the cost in dollars/cents per hour for each benefit.

iii. Discuss your company’s fringe benefit policies and practices, “Personnel and Fringe Benefits Policies”. Address escalation and employer/employee cost sharing ratios. Describe your policy on assuming health insurance coverage for incumbent employees, including the coverage of pre-existing

Attachment 5 Page 4 medical conditions. Any differences in fringe benefit policies or practices for the different site locations should be annotated.

iv. Discuss other salary payment policies, such as cost-of-living adjustments, relocation expenses, reduction in force including severance pay, overtime pay, holiday pay, and any other premium pay anticipated. If uncompensated overtime is proposed, the offeror shall discuss the effects of uncompensated overtime on the PECP and provide a discussion as to whether the uncompensated overtime is voluntary or involuntary.

v. The offeror shall discuss the policy for dealing with seniority and recognition of seniority if incumbents are hired. The discussion shall include a statement regarding the offeror’s intent with respect to paying incumbent employees the amount they are currently earning with salaries/wages and fringe benefits, including accrued leave.

vi. If the offeror or other divisions of the parent company is/are performing a Government contract employing skills of a comparable professional level in the local area or at the same site of performance as this proposed contract, any differences in the PECP for the proposed effort and other contracts shall be identified. The rationale for these differences shall be explained.

vii. Explain how wage/salary ranges were established. Supporting information shall include data, such as recognized national and regional compensation surveys and studies of professional, public and private organizations used in establishing this proposed PECP.

viii. Provide a discussion of prior experience with this proposed PECP, including such information as the length of time you (or other elements of the company) have used the PECP and the turnover experienced with this PECP compared to the national average.

Volume III: Past Performance

1) Page Limit. There is no page limit for this volume.

2) The offeror’s past performance proposal must address corporate past performance in performing projects similar in size and scope to the effort required by the PWS including TO 0001. The offeror’s relevant past performance will be evaluated to assess the extent of its ability to perform the contract successfully.

3) Offeror shall submit a Past Performance Data Sheet, Attachment 7, for three (3) Government or commercial contracts for services directly related or similar to the services required in the PWS including TO 0001. Information for contracts or subcontracts shall be for relevant contracts and subcontracts currently in process or completed within the past five (5) years from the proposal due date. For contracts in process, performance must be ongoing for at least six months prior to the proposal due date.

4) The offeror shall complete Section 1 of Attachment 6, Past Performance Questionnaire and send it to each of the three (3) customers for the contracts identified above on Attachment 7. As stated in Attachment 6, the reference will complete this form and return it directly to the Government by the solicitation closing date.

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5) An offeror without a record of relevant past performance or for whom information on past performance is not available will not be evaluation favorably or unfavorably on past performance (neutral evaluation).

6) The Government will consider past or current contracts (including Federal, State, local Government and private) for efforts similar to the Government requirement. The Government will consider information provided on problems encountered on the identified contracts and associated corrective actions. Contractors with negative past performance rating will be afforded an opportunity to address alleged deficiencies. The Government may also consider information obtained from any other sources when evaluating past performance. Failure of a contractor to disclose relevant Government contract with poor past performance may affect the contractor’s past performance rating.

7) The Government may consider past performance information regarding predecessor companies, key personnel who have relevant experience or subcontractors that will perform major or critical aspects of the requirement when such information is relevant.

The offeror’s performance as a prime contractor may be considered more relevant or significant in the evaluation.

Submission

• Ensure that all confidential information within the submission is marked in accordance with the paragraph below entitled, “Confidential Information.”

• If applicable, submit a disclosure of any actual or potential conflicts of interest in accordance with local clause AD.14 of the solicitation entitled, “Organizational Conflicts of Interest—Disclosure.” There is no page limit for this portion.

• Register in the System for Award Management (www.sam.gov) and complete all representations and certifications required by this solicitation.

• Binder clips are the preferred method of binding proposal volumes. However, three ring binders are also acceptable.

• Submit one (1) original and three (3) copies of the following:

- Volume I: Technical Proposal

- Volume II: Price Proposal

- Volume III: Past Performance

• Submit one (1) CD-ROM that contains electronic versions of all submitted information.

Microsoft Office-compatible or PDF.

• The outside wrapper of the offer shall clearly indicate that it is a submission under this solicitation.

Proposal Delivery

• Proposals are due by the date and time indicated in SF1449 Box 8 (the solicitation cover sheet). In the event that the Federal Government (Washington, DC area) is closed, proposals shall be due at the same time the next business day that the Government is open. Government status can be found at www.opm.gov/status.

• Offer shall remain firm for at least 90 calendar days and can be hand-delivered, submitted via FEDEX, United States Postal Service (USPS), or another commercial carrier;

however, the use of USPS is not recommended as the single method of submission.

Offers shall be submitted to the address below:

http://www.sam.gov/ http://www.opm.gov/status

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ATTN: Wendy Schermerhorn / Samia Bingham / Michael Schuman WHS/Acquisition Directorate 1225 S. Clark St., Ste. 1202 Arlington, VA 22202

Confidential Information

The Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) and its amendments have resulted in an increasing number of requests from outside the Government for copies of contract qualifications and proposals submitted to federal agencies. If an offeror’s submissions contain information that he/she believes should be withheld from such requestors under FOIA on the grounds that they contain “trade secrets and commercial or financial information” [5 USC§552(b)(4)], the offeror should mark its submissions in the following manner:

The following notice should be placed on the title page: “Some parts of this document, as identified on individual pages, are considered by the submitter to be privileged or confidential trade secrets or commercial or financial information not subject to mandatory disclosure under the Freedom of Information Act. Material considered privileged or confidential on such grounds is contained on page(s)

Each individual item considered privileged or confidential under FOIA should be marked with the following notice: “The data or information is considered confidential or privileged, and is not subject to mandatory disclosure under the Freedom of Information Act”.