Assessment and plan development for design of a strategic Communications Plan

The Agricultural Research Service, Plains Area Administrative office, Acquisition and Personal Property office intends to solicit and award a single firm-fixed-price contract for the Assessment and plan development for design of a strategic Communications Plan for the USDA Southwest Climate Hub for Las Cruces, NM. This is a combined synopsis/solicitation for commercial items prepared under Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) Subpart 12.6 – Streamlined Procedures for Evaluation and Solicitation for Commercial Items and supplemented with additional information included in this notice. This announcement constitutes the only solicitation; offers are being requested and a written solicitation will not be issued. This combined synopsis/solicitation is issued under Request for Quotation (RFQ) number 12805B24Q0357.

This requirement is being solicited under NAICS code 517810, All Other Telecommunications and is set-aside for 100% Woman Owned Small Business.

All FAR references are based off FAC 2024-05, Effective 22 May 2024.

This firm-fixed-priced award will be awarded as firm-fixed price contract.  Delivery to Las Cruces, NM

will occur from 08/07/2024 – 08/06/2025.

FAR 52.212-1, Instructions to Offerors-Commercial, is applicable to this acquisition. An addendum will be added on page 11.

FAR 52.212-2, Evaluation of Offerors, is applicable to this acquisition.

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. FAR Part 13 Simplified Acquisition Procedures utilizing Lowest Priced Technically Acceptable (LPTA) factors will be used for the evaluation process. The following factors shall be used to evaluate offers in addition to page 12.

Technical Factor #1. – Service provided meet all the specifications spelled out in Attachment 1.  All addressed specifications must be addressed.  Failure to not address any of the specifications will result in the vendors quote being found unacceptable.

Technical Factor #2

Past performance will be evaluated in accordance with FAR 13.106-2. Past Performance will be rated on an “acceptable” or “unacceptable” basis. The apparent successful, prospective contractor must have acceptable past performance. System for Award Management (SAM.gov) exclusions list, Federal Awardee Performance and Integrity Information System, and Contractor Performance Assessment Reporting System (CPARS) shall be considered as part of the past performance evaluation process. Any past performance that is found to be “negative”, shall result in the entire Past Performance rating as “Unacceptable”. “Negative” is defined as any CPARS past performance evaluation rated less than “Satisfactory”, any Terminations for Default/Cause, or any negative performance references will be rated as ‘Unacceptable’. Note: In the case of an offeror without a 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. Therefore, the offeror shall be determined to have unknown past performance. In the context of acceptability/unacceptability, “unknown” shall be considered “acceptable.” Any past performance that is found to be “negative”, shall result in the entire Past Performance rating as “Unacceptable” making the overall Technical Acceptability as “Unacceptable”.

Offeror must sign and date page 3 to acknowledge the 52.252-1 addendum along with all amendments posted to beta.sam.gov for 12805B24Q0357. 

FAR Clause 52.212-4, Contract Terms and Conditions-Commercial Items, applies to this acquisition and no addendum has been added.

FAR Clause 52.212-5, Contract Terms and Conditions Required to Implement Statutes or Executive Orders-Commercial Items, applies to this acquisition and applicable clauses within 52.212-5 to this acquisition have been marked with an X.

Other additional FAR Clauses have been added to this synopsis/solicitation. If they are incorporated by reference in this synopsis/solicitation, use acquisition.gov to read them in their entirety.

Submittals Formats: Only Electronic submissions via email will be accepted due to Contract Specialist working remotely.

Offers are due to the Contract Specialist, Mrs. Connie Faulkner, at connie.faulkner@usda.gov by 5:00 PM (EST) 28 June 2024.

For information regarding this synopsis/solicitation, please contact Mrs. Connie Faulkner, at connie.faulkner@usda.gov. Only written submitted questions sent via email will be given a response. They will be answered via a Questions from Industry posting to sam.gov. Due to USDA-ARS operating remotely, Mrs. Faulkner is only available via email.

Notice to Offeror(s): The Government reserves the right to cancel this solicitation, either before or after the closing date. In the event the Government cancels this solicitation, the Government has no obligation to reimburse an offeror for any costs incurred.

Site Visit: N/A

Questions must be submitted in writing via email to connie.faulkner@usda.gov. Questions received after June 26, 2024, may not receive a response. Responses will be posted to sam.gov in a document titled Questions from Industry. You will not receive a direct response.