Loren Data's SAM Daily™

FBO DAILY ISSUE OF OCTOBER 21, 2012 FBO #3984
MODIFICATION

R -- Professional and Expert Support Services

Notice Date

10/19/2012
 

Notice Type

Modification/Amendment
 

NAICS

541611 — Administrative Management and General Management Consulting Services
 

Contracting Office

U.S. Department of State, Office of Logistics Management, Acquisition Management, P.O. Box 9115, Rosslyn Station, Arlington, Virginia, 22219, United States
 

ZIP Code

22219
 

Solicitation Number

RFI1066205120
 

Archive Date

11/7/2012
 

Point of Contact

Tracy R. Ford, Phone: 7038756056
 

E-Mail Address

fordtr@state.gov
(fordtr@state.gov)
 

Small Business Set-Aside

Total Small Business
 

Description

Listed below are all questions and answers in regards to the RFI. 1. Question: I understand this is only an RFI but I was hoping you could tell me if this requirement has an incumbent Contract that has performed these or similar requirements in the past? if so, could you provide the Contract #, Contractor, Expiration date and value? Answer: This is a new requirement. 2. Question: For RFI1066205120, Professional and Expert Support Services, is DoS looking for contract management support to include skills that a typical 1102 would possess? Answer: No. This requirement is not for contract management support. 3. Question: The RFI details various position level (e.g., Program Analyst - levels 1-5, and junior, mid, and senior level experts among the other categories. Is there any clear mapping of these various levels against expected GS pay scale levels? Answer: No, not a direct mapping. While it is convenient to think in terms of GS to Contractor mapping for labor rates and descriptions, pricing, experience, and seniority, it is important to distinguish the two types of resources (Government and contractor). The working conditions and activities will be similar for Government and contractor resources will be similar, but the responsibilities vary significantly. Contractors can participate in key support activities, but responsibility for key decisions, negotiations, and other Inherently Governmental functions (IGF) is retained exclusively by Government personnel. 4. Question: In the discussion on pricing requirements, paragraph #4. Trade-offs, references the "total composite price per labor category." Can you confirm this is the same as a fully burdened rate? Answer: Yes, total composite price is the same as fully burdened rate. Other terms used for the fully burdened rate include fully loaded rate, invoice rate, and bill rate, among others. It is the final rate after salary, direct labor overhead (DLO), material handling rate (M&H), general and administrative rate (G&A), fee and/or profit have all been applied. The composite rate, when multiplied with the hours worked in each labor category, shall equal the proposal cost, and monthly invoice total. 5. Question: In the illustrative rates shown, is the "composite overhead" inclusive of fringe benefits, overhead, and G&A costs? Answer: Yes 6. Question: Are the illustrative rates for the referenced GS levels meant to be prescriptive? In other words, must we bill someone at a GS-12 level at $50.52/hour? If not, are there specific rate targets the government has? Or are there existing rates off which the government is looking to achieve material savings? Answer: Illustrative rates are not prescriptive. They are based on midpoints from the standard GS salary table to provide examples of the targets CSO has set for labor increases and overhead savings. Ultimately, contractors responding to the RFP, which will follow this RFI, will be evaluated on a comparative basis. The Government is seeking to maximize limited available financial resources by seeking deeply discounted overhead rates, and eliminating the costs of overhead functions typically carried by the performing contractor. As CSO will be supporting HR identification and placement functions, office and building support, IT and desktop services support, Visa processing, travel coordination, security processing, only a small subset of typical overhead functions and costs should remain. Contractors will need to develop or retain the ability to prepare properly formatted invoices, and carry the appropriate Defense Base Act (DBA) insurance for overseas travelers. 7. Question: The government posted this RFI on October 3, 2012, which stated that all questions must be submitted no later than ten (10) working days prior to the due date of this notice, which is October 15, 2012. However, the government only provided seven (7) working days for Q&A and response. Will the government extend the response date of the RFI? Answer: Yes, the response due date has been extended until October 23, 2012, at 3:00 P.M. 8. Question: For personnel on travel, how will post differential be billed or handled within the target rates provided? Answer: Post differential, where applicable, will be handled as a separate line item, and invoiced separately. 9. Question: The government states that it performs tasks associated with personnel and human resources and virtually every aspect of engaging its manpower. Does the government expect for vendors to incur costs and pay for benefits and time off within this rate structure? Answer: Yes. All normal costs for Direct Labor Overhead (benefits, sick time, time off) are to be accommodated within the rate structure. 10. Question: Will surge and "on-call" support requirements be segregated into a different Contract Line Item (CLIN) structure? Answer: Not necessarily. If you see benefits in having a separate structure, please document your assumptions in response to the RFI. 11. Question: The government specifies that, "it anticipates awarding a single contract from the solicitation to MOBIS firms." Does the government intend to procure these services under GSA's MOBIS Schedule 874? Answer: No. This is a separate full and open competition, not associated with current GSA schedules. The MOBIS reference was included in error. 12. Question: The RFI's "Delivery or Performance-Period Requirements" section states that "CSO anticipates awarding a single contract from the solicitation to MOBIS firms." MOBIS is a GSA contracting vehicle that contains pre-approved fixed hourly rates for services by labor category. Therefore, MOBIS supports time-and-materials (T&M) and fixed-price labor-hour (FPLH) contracts built up using GSA-approved labor categories and rates that may or may not align with the categories or targeted rates listed in the RFI. Could the Government please clarify if it plans to use MOBIS for this procurement, and if so, clarify how the target hourly rates correspond to contractors' pre-approved MOBIS schedules. Answer: MOBIS language was included in the RFI in error. 13. Question: Since the government breaks down illustrative Unloaded and Composite Bill Rates, please specify how many contractor personnel are anticipated within each illustrative GS Labor Category? (i.e.: GS-12 - "25 personnel", GS-13 - "10 personnel", etc.) Answer: Additional information on pricing proposal preparation shall be disseminated in the RFP. Please document your assumptions about the number of FTE available in your RFI response or use 10 FTE per labor category to facilitate proposal evaluation. 14. Question: The government is asking contract firms to, "waive or virtually discount all fees, general and administrative costs, and contribution to overhead normally associated with federal contracting." Is it the government's intent that CSO contractor personnel under this task order will work without benefits? Answer: No. CSO greatly values its Government and contractor resources, and fully anticipates the composite bill rate will include reasonable benefits. The target of the RFI is to reduce corporate overhead, fee, profit, and G & A. 15. Question: Please specify how each of the six categories in contract requirements (i.e.: Program Analyst 1,2,3,4, and 5, Junior, Mid-level, and Senior experts) relate to the illustrative GS Labor categories. Answer: There is no direct correspondence between the six categories in the contract requirements and the illustrative GS labor categories (see answer to Question 3 above). 16. Question: The objective states, "A critical assumption in this plan is that personnel contracted by CSO are generally well known professionals in their field that CSO has found or dealt with previously." Does the government anticipate awarding a firm-fixed price "personal services" contract in accordance with FAR Part 37.104? Answer: Yes, is considered to be firm-fixed-price but will not be a personal services contract. 17. Question: How does the government plan to reimburse the contractor for travel expenses, Defense Base Act (DBA) insurance, etc.? Answer: Contractors should bill the Government for travel expenses as Other Direct Costs. 18. Question: The RFI states under instructions, "The pricing schedules must detail indirect pools and follow the format specified in DCAAP 7641.90." Will the government consider a response to this RFI nonresponsive provided a vendor takes exception in providing indirect/pricing data under the provisions of FAR 52.215-20(a)(ii)? Answer: Yes. The goal of this acquisition is to target the specific information related to indirect rates, typically considered cost or pricing data. 19. Question: Under Contract Requirements, Capability or performance, it states, "The selected offeror must demonstrate the capability to provide professional expert support services on an "on-call" basis for both short-term and long-term deployment assignments to CSO." However, GSA specifically states that an agency cannot utilize the MOBIS schedule to fill short/surge and/or long-term agency staffing shortfalls. Is a particular GSA Schedule anticipated for this procurement? Answer: MOBIS references in this RFI were included in error. 20. Question: Does the government anticipate a Performance-Based Statement of Work for this acquisition? Answer: No. 21. Question: What is the projected value and years of service of the anticipated contract award? Answer:. The projected CSO budget has been severely cut from $80 million per year, to less than half that value for FY2013. CSO anticipates using Government personnel, Personal Services Contractors (PSCs), While Actually Employed (WAE) resources, and contractor personnel in the optimal mix to meet Bureau requirements. This requirement is for contractor personnel and should range from 10 to 20 FTE in the first year, although operational conditions may change this estimate, The estimated years for services is a base year and four option years. 22. Question: The RFI under Objectives states "The costs associated with finding new personnel for CSO shall only be billed once in the first year of service." Is it the government's intent to develop a CLIN for this service on a cost-reimbursable basis? Please provide a detailed description of what expenses the government intends to reimburse the contractor. Answer: Typical executive search finder's fees will be a separate CLIN. The concept here is that the HR requirements are so few and far between that it will be more effective to incur head hunter services, if CSO has not identified the specific resource it needs vs. having access to corporate HR services on overhead. 23. Question: Is overtime anticipated under this requirement? If so, how will it be billed or charged to the government within the anticipated rate structure? Answer: Bill rates shall be calculated without overtime. Overtime, where authorized, will be filled at the negotiated rate, up to 60 hours per week. 24. Question: The RFI's "Trade Off" section that discusses current and target hourly rates does not appear to take into account the difference between how contractors load indirect rates on short-term consultants compared to long-term staff. For example, contractors generally load long-term staff with fringe benefits, where they may not load fringe onto consultants providing short-term technical assistance. Could the Government please clarify if it has a different set of fully-loaded "Composite Bill Rates" for full-time personnel, as the current and target rates shown in the RFI appear to only represent short-term consultants. If the Government does have a full-time table, could it share these figures with offerors? Answer: A table of comparative rates has not been established by the Government. Period of performance (POP) for specific contractor resources will be communicated at the time of task order execution. POP may vary from 1-2 weeks, to a year for particular resources. For pricing purposes, assume all contractor resources are short term (6 months or less) and document your assumptions related to longer, or shorter, periods of performance. 25. Question: The RFI's "Trade Off" section contains a table that shows current and target hourly rates. Each table refers to a "composite overhead." Different contractors build up indirect rates differently based on their Negotiated Indirect Cost Rate Agreements (NICRAs) with their cognizant agencies. For example, some firms have different overhead rates for home office vs. client-site employees, while others do not take overhead but G&A only on short-term staff. Could the Government please clarify what the "composite overhead" figure includes. Alternatively, does the Government mean "composite indirect rate" instead of "composite overhead"? Answer: As stated in the RFI, "Bidders should be prepared to waive or discount virtually all fees, general and administrative costs, and contribution to overhead normally associated with federal contracting". The Government fully understands that variations exist in the preparation of indirect rate tables, which is why that information is being requested in this RFI so an equitable comparison and evaluation can be made. 26. Question: As a company working OCONUS, we assume post differential is not included in the target rates. How will the USG address post differential rates in a FFP contract? Answer: Appropriate post differential will be handled as a separate line item, and invoiced separately. 27. Question: Will the government consider a competitive contract award as to not incur the fees associated with the MOBIS Schedule? Answer: The reference to MOBIS in the RFI was in error. 28. Question: What are the destinations, durations and frequencies of travel for these positions? Answer: TBD as Department needs dictate. CSO operates in diverse areas across the globe. 29. Question: Will the USG dictate the number of personnel required for each task order? Answer: Yes. Details will be enumerated at time of task order award. 30. Question: The "critical assumptions" paragraph in the RFI insinuates that DoS has the majority of contractor personnel identified for this opportunity. Lower than industry standard rates will put these individuals at risk. How did the government determine their target base rates? Answer: The Government disagrees with the assertion about placing "individuals at risk". Please document your assumptions about risk in your response to the RFI.
 

Web Link

FBO.gov Permalink
(https://www.fbo.gov/spg/State/A-LM-AQM/A-LM-AQM/RFI1066205120/listing.html)
 

Place of Performance

Address: Department of State, 2201 C Street, NW, Washington, District of Columbia, 20520, United States

Zip Code: 20520
 

Record

SN02916962-W 20121021/121019234412-fc3a2e58e88576ae057d97de817cbaa2 (fbodaily.com)
 

Source

FedBizOpps Link to This Notice
(may not be valid after Archive Date)

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