B--Online Testing and Evaluation of VA Firearms Safety Messaging

This is a combined synopsis/solicitation for commercial items prepared in accordance with the format in FAR Subpart 12.6, as supplemented with additional information included in this notice. This announcement constitutes the only solicitation; proposals are being requested and a written solicitation will not be issued. This solicitation VA259-15-Q-0655 is issued as a request for quote (RFQ).This solicitation document and incorporated provisions and clauses are those in effect through Federal Acquisition Circular (FAC) 2005-83, effective 3 Sept 2015. No telephone requests will be accepted. Only written requests received directly from the offeror are acceptable. The associated North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) code for this procurement is 541910, with a small business size standard of $15M. IF OFFEROR IS A GSA SCHEDULE HOLDER, ALL INFORMATION REQUESTED IN THIS NOTICE MUST BE PROVIDED, NOT JUST THE OFFEROR'S SCHEDULE NUMBER. This solicitation is unrestricted. However, small businesses, service-disabled veteran-owned small businesses, veteran-owned small businesses, women-owned small businesses and other small disadvantaged businesses are encouraged to submit offers. The following is a list of the contract line item numbers, quantities and units of measure. This firm-fixed price contract will be effective for a period of performance of one year. BASE YEAR: September 30, 2015 - September 29, 2016 CLIN DESCRIPTION UNIT ESTIMATED QUANTITIES UNIT COST TOTAL COST 0001 Online testing and evaluation in accordance with Statement of Work $__________ $__________ TOTAL COST ALL ITEMS, BASE YEAR $__________________________________ DESCRIPTION OF REQUIREMENTS FOR THE ITEMS TO BE REQUIRED: STATEMENT OF WORK (SOW) VA Messaging Testing and Evaluation 1. Background The overall objective of this project is to pilot test VA messaging and evaluate VA initiatives such as the use of the VA firearm safety messaging to improve cognitive and behavioral outcomes related to the safe storage of firearms in the home among Veterans. 2. Scope The Contractor shall facilitate the testing and evaluation of VA initiatives online with a represented cohort for measurement of public opinion, attitudes, and behavior with instruction from a VA research team. 3. Specific Tasks The contractor shall work closely with the VA team to develop a trial/study interface where Public Service Announcements can be viewed and assessments can be completed. The contractor shall then implement an online data collection and viewing of the firearm safety messaging that is consistent with the purposed research design and procedures: a. Design Overview: The study employs a randomized controlled trial (RCT) design comparing two intervention groups to a control condition. Veterans who agree to participate in this trial shall be exposed to video messages at 3 time points, and assessed (surveyed) twice: once at baseline and again at end-of-trial. Approximately 8-10 minutes are required to complete the questionnaire, and each video is approximately 2 ½ minutes long. b. Procedure: The baseline assessment shall be completed to gauge pre-existing knowledge, attitudes, intentions, and behaviors. Following completion of baseline, Veterans will be randomly assigned to 1 of 3 study conditions. i. CONDITION 1- Intervention: Participants shall be exposed to the VA's firearm safety message at 3 separate time points. ii. CONDITION 2- Intervention: Participants at time point 1 shall be exposed to a general VA health promotion message, and at time points 2 and 3 to the VA's firearm safety message. iii. CONDITION 3- Control: Participants shall serve as an active control group that shall be exposed to a general health promotion message at 3 separate time points. Veterans are then assessed again at the end of the trial following the 3 exposures. All measures shall be repeated across both time points and conditions (in other words, it is the same survey completed by Veterans twice, once before exposure, and once after). The contractor shall ensure the study meets recruitment goals with a representative cohort of Veterans who fit inclusion/exclusion criteria (from their own panel of Veterans outside VA), half of whom own firearms. The recruitment minimum is 400 Veterans to complete baseline data collection with a minimum 300 Veterans that shall complete all data collection. The contractor shall be solely responsible for recruiting an appropriate sample of Veterans and for all data collection. The contractor shall supply the VA Research team with documentation to allow the VA Research Team representative to confirm: 1. Website/Interface participants will view when completing project tasks/assessments prior to the date of implementation 2. A complete Data Codebook for the use of the VA research team 3. A proper detailed description of information on recruitment (including demographics, participation rates and attrition rates), data cleaning procedures, and weighting procedures. The step must be approved by VA Research Team prior to running of program for the final deliverable. SAS Programing used to prepare the dataset shall also be provided to the VA Research Team. 4. Standard demographic variables for participants in trial 5. A de-identified, cleaned and weighted analytic SAS dataset file is the final deliverable. 4. Task 1 - Enterprise Management Controls Subtask 1 - Integration Management Control Planning. a. Several meetings shall be held during the implementation of data collection between a contractor point of contact and a representative of the VA Research Team. The meetings are as follows: i. Kick off meeting pre-implementation of data collection. This meeting shall focus on reviewing the data collection plan including viewing/approval of data collection interface and procedures as well as detailing next steps. ii. Mid-Trial (approximately half way through collection) to discuss collection progress. iii. End of trail (Once data collection is complete). 5. Data The data collected by the contractor shall be through a 100% online, randomized control trial with a nationally representative sample of Veterans in the U.S. Respondents shall be randomly found and/or assigned. The collected data shall be statistically significant and methodologically sound so that is publishable in ranked public health journals. 6. Performance Monitoring The designated point of contact shall receive updates on progress and performance of the contract after Management Control Meetings described above from the VA research Team representative. 7. Security Requirements VA INFORMATION CUSTODIAL LANGUAGE a. Information made available to the contractor or subcontractor by VA for the performance or administration of this contract or information developed by the contractor/subcontractor in performance or administration of the contract shall be used only for those purposes and shall not be used in any other way without the prior written agreement of the VA. This clause expressly limits the contractor/subcontractor's rights to use data as described in Rights in Data - General, FAR 52.227-14(d) (1). b. VA information should not be co-mingled, if possible, with any other data on the contractors/subcontractor's information systems or media storage systems in order to ensure VA requirements related to data protection and media sanitization can be met. If co-mingling must be allowed to meet the requirements of the business need, the contractor must ensure that VA's information is returned to the VA or destroyed in accordance with VA's sanitization requirements. VA reserves the right to conduct on-site inspections of contractor and subcontractor IT resources to ensure data security controls, separation of data and job duties, and destruction/media sanitization procedures are in compliance with VA directive requirements. c. Prior to termination or completion of this contract, contractor/subcontractor shall not destroy information received from VA, or gathered/created by the contractor in the course of performing this contract without prior written approval by the VA. Any data destruction done on behalf of VA by a contractor/subcontractor shall be done in accordance with National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) requirements as outlined in VA Directive 6300, Records and Information Management and its Handbook 6300.1 Records Management Procedures, applicable VA Records Control Schedules, and VA Handbook 6500.1, Electronic Media Sanitization. Self-certification by the contractor that the data destruction requirements above have been met shall be sent to the VA Contracting Officer within 30 days of termination of the contract. d. The contractor/subcontractor shall receive, gather, store, back up, maintain, use, disclose and dispose of VA information only in compliance with the terms of the contract and applicable Federal and VA information confidentiality and security laws, regulations and policies. If Federal or VA information confidentiality and security laws, regulations and policies become applicable to the VA information or information systems after execution of the contract, or if NIST issues or updates applicable FIPS or Special Publications (SP) after execution of this contract, the parties agree to negotiate in good faith to implement the information confidentiality and security laws, regulations and policies in this contract. e. The contractor/subcontractor shall not make copies of VA information except as authorized and necessary to perform the terms of the agreement or to preserve electronic information stored on contractor/subcontractor electronic storage media for restoration in case any electronic equipment or data used by the contractor/subcontractor needs to be restored to an operating state. If copies are made for restoration purposes, after the restoration is complete, the copies must be appropriately destroyed. f. If VA determines that the contractor has violated any of the information confidentiality, privacy, and security provisions of the contract, it will be sufficient grounds for VA to withhold payment to the contractor or third party or terminate the contract for default or terminate for cause under Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) Part 12. g. If a VHA contract is terminated for cause, the associated BAA must also be terminated and appropriate actions taken in accordance with VHA Handbook 1600.01, Business Associate Agreements. Absent an agreement to use or disclose protected health information, there is no business associate relationship. h. The contractor/subcontractor shall store, transport, or transmit VA sensitive information in an encrypted form, using VA-approved encryption tools that are, at a minimum, FIPS 140-2 validated. i. The contractor/subcontractor's firewall and Web services security controls, if applicable, shall meet or exceed VA's minimum requirements. VA Configuration Guidelines are available upon request. j. Except for uses and disclosures of VA information authorized by this contract for performance of the contract, the contractor/subcontractor shall only use and disclose VA information in two other situations: (1) in response to a qualifying order of a court of competent jurisdiction, or (2) with VA's prior written approval. The contractor/subcontractor shall refer all requests for, demands for production of, or inquiries about, VA information and information systems to the VA contracting officer for response. k. Notwithstanding the provision above, the contractor/subcontractor shall not release VA records protected by Title 38 U.S.C. 5705, confidentiality of medical quality assurance records and/or Title 38 U.S.C. 7332, confidentiality of certain health records pertaining to drug addiction, sickle cell anemia, alcoholism or alcohol abuse, or infection with human immunodeficiency virus. If the contractor/subcontractor is in receipt of a court order or other requests for the above mentioned information, that contractor/subcontractor shall immediately refer such court orders or other requests to the VA contracting officer for response. l. For service that involves the storage, generating, transmitting, or exchanging of VA sensitive information but does not require C&A or an MOU-ISA for system interconnection, the contractor/subcontractor shall complete a Contractor Security Control Assessment (CSCA) on a yearly basis and provide it to the technical point of contact. INFORMATION SYSTEM HOSTING, OPERATION, MAINTENANCE, OR USE a. Adequate security controls for collecting, processing, transmitting, and storing of Personally Identifiable Information (PII), as determined by the VA Privacy Service, shall be in place, tested, and approved by VA prior to hosting, operation, maintenance, or use of the information system, or systems by or on behalf of VA. These security controls are to be assessed and stated within the PIA and if these controls are determined not to be in place, or inadequate, a Plan of Action and Milestones (POA&M) shall be submitted and approved prior to the collection of PII. 8. Government-Furnished Equipment (GFE)/Government-Furnished Information (GFI) None 9. Other Pertinent Information or Special Considerations. a. Identification of Potential Conflicts of Interest (COI) No known COIs. b. Identification of Non-Disclosure Requirements The contractor will not have access to VA information or IT access for completion of this contract. They will be collecting information on behalf of a VA Research team and must follow above Security requirements around the use and non-disclosure of this information. c. Packaging, Packing and Shipping Instructions Data files shall be transferred in a secure and encrypted manner consistent with VA rules on data storage and transfer. d. Inspection and Acceptance Criteria The technical point of contact shall meet with the VA Research Team representative two (2) weeks after receipt of the final data file and confirm full receipt and acceptability of data file. 10. Risk Control There is no risk to patient safety from the issuing of this contract. 11. Place of Performance Work shall be completed from the contractor's site all meetings shall be on conference or teleconference and no travel shall be required. 12. Period of Performance The anticipated period of performance is October 19, 2015 - October 18, 2016. 13. Delivery Schedule SOW Task# Deliverable Title Format Calendar Days After Start Date 1 Documentation of Website/Interface for approval Contractor-Determined Format 15 2 Complete Data Codebook Contractor-Determined Format 30 3 Recruitment Information Contractor-Determined Format 30 4 Data Cleaning Procedures Contractor-Determined Format 50 5 Weighting Procedures Contractor-Determined Format 50 6 SAS Program used to prepare dataset Contractor-Determined Format 50 7 De-identified, cleaned, and weighted analytic SAS dataset including standard demographic variables Contractor-Determined Format 50 ? The provision at FAR 52.212-1, INSTRUCTION TO OFFERORS -- COMMERCIAL ITEMS, applies to this acquisition; with the following addendum. FAR 52.203-98, PROHIBITION ON CONTRACTING WITH ENTITIES THAT REQUIRE CERTAIN INTERNAL CONFIDENTIALITY AGREEMENTS-REPRESENTATION (FEB 2015) a. In accordance with section 743 of Division E, Title VII, of the Consolidated and Further Continuing Resolution Appropriations Act, 2015 (Pub. L. 113-235), Government agencies are not permitted to use funds appropriated (or otherwise made available) under that or any other Act for contracts with an entity that requires employees or subcontractors of such entity seeking to report fraud, waste, or abuse to sign internal confidentiality agreements or statements prohibiting or otherwise restricting such employees or subcontractors from lawfully reporting such waste, fraud, or abuse to a designated investigative or law enforcement representative of a Federal department or agency authorized to receive such information. b. The prohibition in paragraph (a) of this provision does not contravene requirements applicable to Standard Form 312, Form 4414, or any other form issued by a Federal department or agency governing the nondisclosure of classified information. c. Representation. By submission of its offer, the Offeror represents that it does not require employees or subcontractors of such entity seeking to report fraud, waste, or abuse to sign internal confidentiality agreements or statements prohibiting or otherwise restricting such employees or subcontractors from lawfully reporting such waste, fraud, or abuse to a designated investigative or law enforcement representative of a Federal department or agency authorized to receive such information. (End of provision) FAR 52.204-16, Commercial and Government Entity Code Reporting (NOV 2014) FAR 52.204-17, Ownership or Control of Offeror (NOV 2014) The provision at FAR 52.212-2, EVALUATION -- COMMERCIAL ITEMS, applies to this acquisition. (a) 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: 1. Technical: The offer shall be evaluated on the conformance to the requirements listed in the Statement of Work. 2. Past Performance: Offeror shall provide three references of organizations in which they have provided the same or similar type of service. References shall include a point of contact, position held by the point of contact, company name, telephone number, mailing address and email address. 3. Price: Offeror's price shall be evaluated to determine its fair and reasonableness. Technical and past performance, when combined, are more significant than price. (b) Options. The Government will evaluate offers for award purposes by adding the total price for all options to the total price for the basic requirement. The Government may determine that an offer is unacceptable if the option prices are significantly unbalanced. Evaluation of options shall not obligate the Government to exercise the option(s). (c) 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. (End of provision) A completed copy of the provision at FAR 52.212-3, OFFEROR REPRESENTATIONS AND CERTIFICATIONS - COMMERCIAL ITEMS shall be submitted with the offer. The clause at FAR 52.212-4 CONTRACT TERMS AND CONDITIONS -- COMMERCIAL ITEMS, applies to this acquisition, with the following addendum: FAR 52.217-8 Option to Extend Services (NOV 1999) The Government may require continued performance of any services within the limits and at the rates specified in the contract. These rates may be adjusted only as a result of revisions to prevailing labor rates provided by the Secretary of Labor. The option provision may be exercised more than once, but the total extension of performance hereunder shall not exceed 6 months. The Contracting Officer may exercise the option by written notice to the Contractor within sixty (60) days of the expiration date of the current contract period. (End of clause) FAR 52.232-19 Availability of Appropriated Funds for the Next Fiscal Year (APR 1984) Funds are not presently available for performance under this contract beyond SEPTEMBER 30, 2015. The Government's obligation for performance of this contract beyond that date is contingent upon the availability of appropriated funds from which payment for contract purposes can be made. No legal liability on the part of the Government for any payment may arise for performance under this contract beyond SEPTEMBER 30TH OF ANY FISCAL YEAR, until funds are made available to the Contracting Officer for performance and until the Contractor receives notice of availability, to be confirmed in writing by the Contracting Officer. (End of clause) VAAR 852.203-70 Commercial Advertising (JAN 2008); VAR 852.215-70, Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned and Veteran-Owned Small Business Evaluation Factors (DEC 2009) VAR 852.215-71, Evaluation Factor Commitments (DEC 2009) VAAR 852.237-70 Contractor Responsibilities (APR 1984); The contractor shall obtain all necessary licenses and/or permits required to perform this work. He/she shall take all reasonable precautions necessary to protect persons and property from injury or damage during the performance of this contract. He/ she shall be responsible for any injury to himself/herself, his/her employees, as well as for any damage to personal or public property that occurs during the performance of this contract that is caused by his/her employees fault or negligence, and shall maintain personal liability and property damage insurance having coverage for a limit as required by the laws of the State of COLORADO. Further, it is agreed that any negligence of the Government, its officers, agents, servants and employees, shall not be the responsibility of the contractor hereunder with the regard to any claims, loss, damage, injury, and liability resulting there from. (End of Clause) and VAAR 852.273-76 Electronic Invoice Submission (Interim - October 2008). LIMITATIONS ON SUBCONTRACTING - MONITORING AND COMPLIANCE: This solicitation includes VAAR 852.215-70, Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned and Veteran-Owned Small Business Evaluation Factors, and VAAR 852.215-71, Evaluation Factor Commitments. Accordingly, any contract resulting from this solicitation will include these clauses. The contractor is advised in performing contract administration functions, the CO may use the services of a support contractor(s) to assist in assessing contractor compliance with the subcontracting commitments incorporated into the contract. To that end, the support contractor(s) may require access to the contractor's business records or other proprietary data to review such business records regarding contract compliance with this requirement. All support contractors conducting this review on behalf of VA will be required to sign an "Information Protection and Non-Disclosure and Disclosure of Conflicts of Interest Agreement" to ensure the contractor's business records or other proprietary data reviewed or obtained in the course of assisting the CO in assessing the contractor for compliance are protected to ensure information or data is not improperly disclosed or other impropriety occurs. Furthermore, if VA determines any services the support contractor(s) will perform in assessing compliance are advisory and assistance services as defined in FAR 2.101, Definitions, the support contractor(s) must also enter into an agreement with the contractor to protect proprietary information as required by FAR 9.505-4, obtaining access to proprietary information, paragraph (b). The contractor is required to cooperate fully and make available any records as may be required to enable the CO to assess the contractor compliance with the subcontracting commitments. The clause at FAR 52.212-5 CONTRACT TERMS AND CONDITIONS REQUIRED TO IMPLEMENT STATUTES OR EXECUTIVE ORDERS -- COMMERCIAL ITEMS applies to this acquisition including the following clauses: FAR 52.204-10 Reporting Executive Compensation & First Tier Subcontract Awards (JUL 2013); FA R 52.209-6 Protecting the Government's Interest When Subcontracting with Contractors Debarred, Suspended, or Proposed for Debarment (AUG 2013); FAR 52.209-10; Prohibition on Contracting with Inverted Domestic Corporations (DEC 2014); FAR 52.219-4 Notice of Price Evaluation Preference for HUBZone Small Businesses (OCT 2014); FAR 52.219-28 Post-Award Small Business Program Rerepresentation (JUL 2013); FAR 52.222-3 Convict Labor (JUNE 2003); FAR 52.222-21 Prohibition of Segregated Facilities (APR 2015); FAR 52.222-26 Equal Opportunity (APR 2015); FAR 52.222-36 Affirmative Action for Workers with Disabilities (JUL 2014); FAR 52.222-41 Service Contract Labor Standards (MAY 2014); FAR 52.222-50 Combating Trafficking in Persons (MAR 2015); FAR 52.222-55 Minimum Wages Under Executive Order 13658 (DEC 2014); FAR 52.223-18 Encouraging Contractor Policies to Ban Text Messaging While Driving (AUG 2011); FAR 52.225-13 Restrictions on Certain Foreign Purchases (JUNE 2008); and FAR 52.232-34 Payment by Electronic Funds Transfer-Other than System for Award Management (JUL 2013) FAR 52.222-42 Statement of Equivalent Rates for Federal Hires (MAY 2014) Employee Class Monetary Wage-Fringe Benefits 14071, Computer Programmer I GS-5 FAR 52.222-44 Fair Labor Standards Act and Service Contract Labor Standards -- Price Adjustment (MAY 2014). DEPARTMENT OF LABOR WAGE DETERMINATIONS: Department of Labor Wage Determination 2005-2081, Revision Number 16, dated July 8, 2015. Any revisions will be incorporated into the resulting contract in their entirety. The full text of a solicitation provision or contract clause may be accessed electronically at the address(es) below: http://www.acquisition.gov/far/index.html http://www.va.gov/oamm/oa/ars/policyreg/vaar/index.cfm Offers shall include the RFQ number, the proposed unit price, the proposed extended price, any prompt payment discount terms, company name, the company point of contact, address, phone number, fax number, e-mail address, Tax Identification Number, DUNS number, and business size status. All information has been posted and there are no other documents available. Please submit all documents via email to Katherine Dorn at contact@example.gov. Offers may also be sent to Department of Veterans Affairs, NCO 19 Rocky Mountain Acquisition Center, 4100 East Mississippi Avenue, Suite 900, Glendale, CO 80246 Attn: Katherine Dorn, Contract Specialist no later than 3:00 P.M. Mountain Daylight Time on September 28, 2015.You may contact Katherine Dorn, via email at contact@example.gov or via telephone at +1 (555) 000-0000. Any questions regarding this solicitation must be submitted in writing to the contract specialist.