Description
Contractual Questions1. Please confirm that the 40 page limit reference for the technical proposal on Page 2 of the RFP applies only to Volume I - Technical. The 40 page limit only refers to Volume I - Technical 2. Please confirm there are no page limits for Volumes II, III, and IV of the response. Confirmed 3. Is each of the four volumes for the response to be submitted as a separate document? Yes Can the Government clarify their expectation for section 6 of the SOW (begins Page II-6)? Section 6 repeats much of the content and appears to cover the same general scope as Section 4.1 but with significantly greater detail. Additionally, Section 6 appears to focus on specific requirements for the current Futures Game vice more general requirements. 4. Is Section 6 intended to be an initial or sample task order? No section 6 is not an initial task order. If so, there are no response instructions for preparing a technical or price quote for an initial or sample task. Can the Government clarify their expectations for Section 6 and if a sample task is not intended, would the Government consider removing Section 6 from the SOW? No section 6 will not be removed. Please define your technical capabilities for sections of the SOW. 5. Is this a new requirement or if there is an incumbent? Yes, this is a new requirement. 6. Please clarify the correct solicitation number. Correct solicitation number is N10PS18256 RFP Section M.3.4 Factor 4: Staffing states in part: "The Offeror's Labor Category Table will be evaluated to determine the consistency and reasonableness of the proposed labor category qualifications with the Government's labor category descriptions." 7. Does the government intend to provide proposers its labor category descriptions, and if so, when? No this has removed from the solicitation. 8. How is the government going to evaluate fair and reasonableness of submitted labor rates? In accordance with FAR 15.4049. How is the government going to evaluate cost (as part of the best value determination) on a fair and consistent basis between solicitation responses? It is based on the offerors technical solution. 10. Once the contract vehicle is awarded, when does the Government expect the first task order to be issued (timing)? As soon as practicable 11. For the Subcontracting Plan, are the percentage goals additive; i.e., if an offeror chooses to meet the Small Business goal of 10% and the Small Disadvantaged goal of 2% (assuming only 2 of 5 goals must be met), is the total goal 12% or 10% given that Small Disadvantaged is a subset of Small Business? No they are not additive 12: How will the Government evaluate two offeror submissions with different percentage goals (e.g., 3% total to small businesses of all types, vs. 10%)? Will two such proposals be considered equally acceptable? Each offeror must meet at a minimum two of the five subcontracting goals. Under Factor 2 Evaluation instructions in Section I, pp. 5-6, in the following paragraph: "Provides appropriate examples where the Offeror integrates partners and subcontractors into partner or subcontractor, and how roles and responsibilities are to be assigned, coordinated, managed, and implemented." It appears that either something was unintentionally inserted or left out in this paragraph. 13. Can the Government re-state this evaluation paragraph? Re-stated as follows"Provides appropriate examples where the Offeror integrates partners and subcontractors, and how roles and responsibilities are to be assigned, coordinated, managed, and implemented." On Solicitation pp. III&IV, 4-5, the certification requirements are described regarding possible Organizational Conflicts of Interest (OCI), including both cases where offerors are aware and not aware of a possible OCI. However, there is no indication in the solicitation of how this information will be evaluated. Given current guidance from the Air Force and OSD that some conflicts cannot be mitigated (see SAF/AQC memorandum dated Nov 3, 2009, attached) , and GAO rulings supporting this point; and given FAR 9.504 "Contracting Officer Responsibilities," requiring that "contracting officers shall (1) Identify and evaluate potential organizational conflicts of interest as early in the acquisition process as possible; and (2) Avoid, neutralize, or mitigate significant potential conflicts before contract award", 14. How does the government propose to evaluate OCI issues and disqualify conflicted offerors from receiving an award? If there is an apparent OCI please submit a mitigation plan. Section II, Statement of Work, pages II-1 through II-13 15. Would the Government accept proposals for a portion of the tasks or must Offerors address all tasks in the Statement of Work? All tasks must be addressed. Section II, Statement of Work, Paragraphs 4, 5, & 6, pages II-2 through II-10 16. The Statement of Work provides a substantial number of detailed subtasks that would be extremely difficult to address individually in a forty page technical volume. May offerors provide a technical approach to types and groupings of tasks that would demonstrate its capabilities to address A8's requirements? Yes 17. SF1449 states 12:00am and page I-1 states 3pm. Would the Government please clarify the due time for proposals? 3:00pm Eastern Time 18. Would the Government please clarify "Microsoft compatible format"? Is that Microsoft operating system compatible or Microsoft Office compatible? Microsoft Office compatible. 19. May offerors propose pricing based on GSA Schedules (e.g., MOBIS)? Yes, but the terms and conditions of the IDIQ is what is to be conformed to. Section I - Page 2 provides exclusions from the page limit.20. Will the Government exclude the Conflict of Interest Certification/Disclosure, Completed 52.227-15, glossaries of acronyms and abbreviations, and cross reference matrices from the page count? Yes 21. What is the projected award date or award time frame? Prior to September 30, 2010. 22. Following award, what is the anticipated start date for specific task orders? Do you expect to award tasks this FY? As soon as practicable. 23. Will the government also access the CPARs database for past performance? Please refer to section I page 6. 24. Does the government anticipate a continuous level of effort resulting from the award of each task order (i.e. on-site support services), or will the work be more short-term (i.e. off-site, product deliverables)? This is task order dependant. 25. Besides the requirement for a Subcontracting Plan, do offerors have to list all planned subcontractors in the original proposal, or can the selection of subcontractors be deferred until future proposals on individual task orders? Subcontractors must be addressed in the proposal. 26. Will there be any government approval process to add subcontractors after award? A formal modification to the contract will be issued. 27. Can we get clarification as to whether Page 3 or Page 6 is correct? Page 3, Section I, says "three out of five," and Page 6, states "two out of five" as it relates to subcontracting goals. Two out of five subcontracting goals must be addressed. 28. Would the government provide an estimated breakdown of the level of effort for the tasks outlined-Administrative Support, Strategic Analysis, IT Support? Task order dependant. Section II - Page 10 of RFP mentions "The program manager will make a copy of the fully executed form available to the COR upon request. Obtain, store, maintain, and reproduce the required studies, reports, applicable staff documents, plan, etc. (up to the TOP SECRET classification level)."29. Is a SCIF requirement for the prime, or can a sub-contractor firm provide the SCIF? Task order dependant. 30. What is the expected annual value of the resultant award(s)? The total IDIQ value is not anticipated to exceed $25million. 31. Can a company propose only on a portion/section requirement of the RFP? All tasks must be proposed. 32. Will companies be required to submit a proposal for all individual task orders after winning an award? It's the business decision of each Contractor to submit a proposal. In Section I-2 of the Solicitation under the instructions pertaining to the Technical Proposal Format, the Government states "Resumes of Key Personnel" shall be included in the offeror's response. In Section III&IV-3 the Government further states that "for the purpose of the overall performance of this effort, the Contractor's Project Manager shall be designated as a key person." The Government does not identify any additional Contractor positions that are to be designated as Key Personnel under the IDIQ contract.33. Based on this is it assumed that the Government will define all additional Key Personnel at the Task Order level. Yes The statement in Section I-2 seems to insinuate that the Government anticipates that the Contractor will submit more than one resume in response to the Solicitation.34. If more than one resume is anticipated, then will the Government please state the additional position(s) that the Contractor is expected to provides resumes for in response to the Solicitation? Task order dependant. 35. Would the Government please advise whether the support that the winning bidders will provide under a resultant IDIQ contract is considered new work? Yes this is new work. The bidder recognizes that individual Task Orders issued under the IDIQ contract may be Firm Fixed Price (FFP), Time and Material (T&M) or other. The bidder also understands that Task Orders issued may require Government site and/or contractor site work locations. As an IDIQ pricing schema, the bidder intends to list each A8 appropriate labor category followed by two fully loaded rates; one which will apply for Government site work and another which will apply for contractor site work. It is assumed that all work accomplished under this IDIQ contract will be done within the Washington Capitol Region. 36. Please advise if it is the Government intention for the contractor to provide Government site and Contractor site rates for all proposed labor categories. Further-please confirm that the Government anticipates that all work under the resultant IDIQ contract will be accomplished within the Washington Capitol Region. Yes the Govt. intent is for both on and off site. All work will be accomplished in the Washington Capital Region. 37. If performance locations in addition to those within the Washington Capitol Region are anticipated, does the Government anticipate that any of these additional locations will be OCONUS? If so-would the Government please specify any such locations? No. All work will be accomplished in the Washington Capital Region. 38. If performance locations in addition to those within the Washington Capitol Region are anticipated, does the Government anticipate that these additional locations will include in any Gross Receipt Tax states under the resultant IDIQ contract? This includes work in New Mexico, Ohio, Arizona, Hawaii, Washington, and Delaware. Please advise. All work will be accomplished in the Washington Capital Region. Section II, page 11 (Task 7): "The Contractor shall schedule a monthly consolidated Program management Review (PMR) that summarizes the results of all information required in the monthly progress reports to include work performed, the type and amount of effort (man-hours), expenses incurred, deliverables completed, work in progress, percentage of annual effort expended by effort, problems encountered, recommended solutions, and work planned during the next reporting period. The required reporting period will be on a calendar month basis regardless of the contractor's account period. The contractor shall provide copies of all required PMR reports to all attendees."39. Is this requirement expected to be completed at the BPA level or task order level? This solicitation if for an IDIQ. 40. Can a single offeror submit a proposal as a prime offeror and also compete as a member of another offeror's team and/or sub-contracting plan? Yes There appears to be a sentence missing in RFP Section 4.3, Page II-3. The statement begins by noting that the "contractor will be expected to perform the following tasks: Provide analyses of to support the development of the Air Force's future Planning[.]" 41. Can the government clarify what product or process is being referenced in this statement? Remove the word "of". 42. AQD is conducting this acquisition using the procedures as identified in FAR Part 12. Therefore we respectfully request that FAR 52.244-2 be removed from Section I - Page 3, Volume IV- price/cost proposal and Section III & IV - 9, "FAR Clauses Incorporated By Reference" as this clause is not applicable to orders for commercial items. FAR 12 provides the policies and guidance in conjunction with the appropriate FAR part. In addition to FAR 12, the guidance in FAR 15 is being utilized. The clause will remain in the IDIQ. 43. In Section 1 in the Format for Proposal paragraphs on Page 2 the page size, margins and font requirements are provided. It does not provide a line spacing requirement. Is there a specific line spacing requirement for the Technical Proposal? Single or double spaced.