Certificate in Securities and Financial Regulation Program

(i) This is a combined synopsis/solicitation for commercial products or commercial services prepared in accordance with the format in Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) subpart 12.6 and FAR Part 13.5, Simplified Procedures for Certain Commercial Products and Commercial Services, as supplemented with additional information included in this notice. This announcement constitutes the only solicitation; proposals are being requested and a written solicitation document will not be issued. (ii) Solicitation Number 50310222R0018 is issued as a request for proposal (RFP). (iii) The solicitation document and incorporated provisions and clauses are those in effect through Federal Acquisition Circular 2022-06 effective May 26, 2022. (iv) Solicitation Number 50310222R0018 is unrestricted. The associated NAICS code for this procurement is 611310 - Colleges, Universities and Professional Schools, with a small business size standard of $30.5 Million. (v) This combined synopsis/solicitation contains the following Line Item Numbers (CLIN): 00001 Ordering Period 1 - (Contract Year 1) - Instructor Led Off-the-Shelf LLM Level Law School Courses in video demand format in accordance with the Statement of Work. December 21, 2022 through December 20, 2023. 00002 Ordering Period 2 - (Contract Year 2) - Instructor Led Off-the-Shelf LLM Level Law School Courses in video demand format in accordance with the Statement of Work. December 21, 2023 through December 20, 2024. 00003 Ordering Period 3 - (Contract Year 3) - Instructor Led Off-the-Shelf LLM Level Law School Courses in video demand format in accordance with the Statement of Work. December 21, 2024 through December 20, 2025. 00004 Ordering Period 4 - (Contract Year 4). - Instructor Led Off-the-Shelf LLM Level Law School Courses in video demand format in accordance with the Statement of Work. December 21, 2025 through December 20, 2026. 00005 Ordering Period 5 - (Contract Year 5). - Instructor Led Off-the-Shelf LLM Level Law School Courses in video demand format in accordance with the Statement of Work. December 21, 2026 through December 20, 2027. (vi) The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) intends to award one (1) non-personal services Indefinite Delivery Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) contract to provide instructor led off-the-shelf LLM level (graduate) law school courses on a wide range of securities law topics (including, but not limited to: securities fraud, fiduciary duties, hedge funds, mergers and acquisitions, corporations, corporate governance, securities litigation, federal regulation of financial institutions, global risk regulation, capital markets, white collar crime, and accounting) in a video on-demand format in support of the SEC Headquarters and Regional Offices. The Government shall not exercise any supervision or control over the contract service. The SEC intends to award a non-personal services Indefinite-Delivery Indefinite-Quantity (IDIQ) contract with firm-fixed pricing to provide the required services in accordance with the Statement of Work at Enclosure 1 and Contract Clauses & SEC Instructions at Enclosure 2. The Minimum Order under this contract is two (2) courses and the Maximum Threshold under the IDIQ contract is $2,000,000.00. (vii) Place of Performance. Work shall primarily be performed at the Contractor's place of performance in support of the video demand course format. (viii) FAR 52.212-1, Instructions to Offerors - Commercial Products and Commercial Services (NOV 2021), applies to this acquisition. Offerors may obtain full text versions of these clauses electronically at http://www.acquisition.gov. (ix) The provision at FAR 52.212-2, Evaluation - Evaluation'Commercial Products and Commercial Services (Nov 2021), applies to this acquisition as follows: Addendum to 52.212-2 Evaluation - Evaluation'Commercial Products and Commercial Services (Nov 2021). The Government will award a contract resulting from this solicitation to the responsible Offeror whose proposal conforming to the solicitation will be most advantageous to the Government, price and other factors considered. This is a Best Value Procurement. Comparative Analysis: Following the receipt of responses to the request for proposal, the Government will perform a comparative analysis (comparing Offerors responses to one another) to select the proposal that is best suited to fulfill the requirements, based on the Offerors responses to the factors outlined in this solicitation and their relative importance. It is anticipated that the contract award will be made to the responsible Offeror submitting an overall offer that is determined to be most advantageous to the Government, price and non-price factors considered. The following factors, in descending order, shall be used to evaluate offers: Technical Approach and Understanding Past Performance Price Technical Approach and Understanding is more important than Past Performance. When combined, the evaluation factors of 1. Technical Approach and Understanding and 2. Past Performance, are more important than price. As the technical offers become more equal, price becomes more important in making the award determination. In the event that two or more offers are determined not to have any substantial technical differences, i.e., are technically equivalent, award may be made to the lower priced offer. It should be noted that award may be made to other than the lowest priced offer if the Government determines that a price premium is warranted due to technical merit. The Government may also award to other than highest technically rated offer, if the Government determines that a price premium is not warranted. Awards may also be made on the basis of initial offers without conversations. Offerors are therefore cautioned that each initial offer should contain the Offeror's best terms. The Offeror's Technical Proposal (Volume 1) must demonstrate the vendor's capability to perform the requirements outlined in the Statement of Work (SOW). Offerors shall provide a technical offer that includes the following two (2) general areas/factors: Factor 1, Technical Approach and Understanding and Factor 2, Past Performance. 1. Technical Approach and Understanding: The Offeror's technical approach shall describe how the vendor addresses specifications and government requirements as listed in the Statement of Work. The Offeror's technical approach shall clearly describe and address the Offeror's understanding of the desired outcomes contained in the SOW. Statements such as - the Offeror understands or - the Offeror will comply and statements that paraphrase the SOW or other contract requirements are inadequate. Specifically the contractor shall address how it intends to accomplish the following: - Deliver the specified variety of high quality 2-credit video on-demand ABA accredited LLM-level securities and financial regulation classes through a distance learning platform operated by the Contractor; - Provide effective and efficient course support, including: recording classes; maintaining a Contractor-owned platform for delivering courses virtually and on-demand; organizing an available teaching assistant; distributing course materials (excluding textbooks) and syllabi; and administering an online exam; - Award a Certificate to each SEC employee who earns at least 10 academic credits in courses and receives a grade of B- or better; - Accept credits from all SEC employees who participated in and earned credits through a similar SEC-sponsored program with an institution other than the Contractor; and, - Provide an option for SEC employees who hold a Juris Doctor (JD) to transfer credits earned as a part of the program toward an LLM degree or Executive LLM degree offered by the Contractor. Evaluation of technical approach and understanding will be based on the degree to which the Offeror effectively demonstrates a knowledge, understanding, and technical ability to successfully meet the government's requirements. 2. Past Performance: The Government will evaluate relevance, breadth and quality of past performance by surveying CPARS, reviewing past performance references, and other measures. Relevant Past Performance is previous or current performance of a similar size and scope, where performance was within three years prior to offer submission. 3. Price: For the purposes of the evaluation, the Government will compare the price of courses as indicated in the Contractor's Price Proposal with the Independent Government Estimate and other offers proposed. Each Offeror shall submit a price proposal separate from the technical proposal. The price proposal shall include the following: a) A list of courses with their applicable prices for Ordering Period 1, Ordering Period 2, Ordering Period 3, Ordering Period 4 and Ordering Period 5 and any other price element in an Excel Spreadsheet. b) If applicable, Prime Contractor/Subcontractor Arrangement or Contractor Team Arrangement Supporting Documentation: If subcontracting is proposed, the Government will evaluate the acceptability of any subcontracting as part of its evaluation of price. Technical offers submitted in response to this RFP will be evaluated by comparing each offer to another in order to determine rank order for selection. The comparison of the offers will be based on the following: Technical Approach and Understanding - the degree to which the Offeror effectively demonstrates a knowledge, understanding, and technical ability to successfully perform the requirements of the SOW. Past performance - will assess the relevance, breadth and quality of the Offeror's recent past performance on similar type of work. The Government intends to evaluate and rank offers and award an IDIQ Contract without conversations. It is anticipated that the IDIQ Contract award will be made to the responsible Offeror submitting an overall offer that is determined most advantageous to the Government, price and non-price factors considered. Award will be made to the Offeror whose offer meets the Government's requirements and whose technical proposal and price represent the best value to the Government. Offerors are cautioned that their initial offer should contain the best terms from a technical and price standpoint. The failure of an Offeror to meet any given requirement or instruction of the RFP in their proposal may result in the entire proposal being found to be unacceptable and thus eliminated from the competition. The Government intends to use narrative statements to justify the ultimate selection decision. (x) A completed copy of the representations and certifications at FAR 52.212-3 , Offeror Representations and Certifications-Commercial Products and Services. Note: If your firm's completed electronic representations and certifications are available on System for Award Management (SAM), it is not necessary to provide a copy with your offer; (xi) The clause FAR 52.212-4, Contract Terms and Conditions'Commercial Products and Commercial Services, applies to this acquisition. (xii) The clause FAR 52.212-5, Contract Terms and Conditions Required to Implement Statutes or Executive Orders-Commercial Products and Commercial Services, applies to this acquisition. The following subparagraphs of FAR 52.212-5 are applicable: 52.203-6, Restrictions on Subcontractor Sales to the Government (Jun 2020), with Alternate I (Nov 2021) (41 U.S.C. 4704 and 10 U.S.C. 2402). 52.203-13, Contractor Code of Business Ethics and Conduct (Nov 2021) (41 U.S.C. 3509)). 52.204-10, Reporting Executive Compensation and First-Tier Subcontract Awards (Jun 2020) (Pub. L. 109-282) (31 U.S.C. 6101 note). 52.204-15, Service Contract Reporting Requirements for Indefinite-Delivery Contracts (Oct 2016) (Pub.L. 111-117, section 743 of Div. C). 52.209-6, Protecting the Government's Interest When Subcontracting with Contractors Debarred, Suspended, or Proposed for Debarment. (Nov 2021) (31 U.S.C. 6101 note). 52.209-9, Updates of Publicly Available Information Regarding Responsibility Matters (Oct 2018) (41 U.S.C. 2313). 52.219-14, Limitations on Subcontracting (Sep 2021) (15 U.S.C. 637(a)(14). 52.222-3, Convict Labor (June 2003) (E.O. 11755). 52.222-19, Child Labor Cooperation with Authorities and Remedies (Jan 2022) 52.222-21, Prohibition of Segregated Facilities (Apr 2015). 52.222-26, Equal Opportunity (Sep 2016) (E.O. 11246). 52.222-35, Equal Opportunity for Veterans (Jun 2020) (38 U.S.C. 4212). 52.222-36, Equal Opportunity for Workers with Disabilities (Jun 2020) (29 U.S.C. 793). 52.222-37, Employment Reports on Veterans (Jun 2020) (38 U.S.C. 4212). 52.222-40, Notification of Employee Rights Under the National Labor Relations Act (Dec 2010) (E.O. 13496). 52.222-50, Combating Trafficking in Persons (Nov 2021) (22 U.S.C. chapter 78 and E.O. 13627). 52.222-54, Employment Eligibility Verification (May 2022). (Executive Order 12989). (Not applicable to the acquisition of commercially available off-the-shelf items or certain other types of commercial items as prescribed in 22.1803.) 52.223-18, Encouraging Contractor Policies to Ban Text Messaging While Driving (Jun 2020) (E.O. 13513). 52.225-13, Restrictions on Certain Foreign Purchases (Feb 2021) (E.O.s, proclamations, and statutes administered by the Office of Foreign Assets Control of the Department of the Treasury). 52.232-33, Payment by Electronic Funds Transfer-System for Award Management (Oct 2018) (31 U.S.C. 3332). (xiii) Services under this acquisition are required to be provided by a Nationally-Ranked ABA accredited law school that offers a Masters of Law (LLM) degree in securities and financial regulation. (xiv) Defense Priority and Allocations Systems (DPAS) is not applicable. (xv) Submission of offers. Proposals are due Tuesday, August 16, 2022 by 2:00 pm Eastern Time. Proposals shall be submitted electronically via e-mail to Gabriel Aviles at AvilesG@sec.gov and Tammy Oliver at OliverT@sec.gov. A complete proposal will consist of: (1) Completed Price Proposal; (2) Signature on a proposal cover letter which includes the proposal's acceptance period; (3) Technical Approach & Understanding information to include Nationally-Ranked ABA accredited law school that offers a Masters of Law degree in securities and financial regulation proof; (4) Past Performance information; and (5) Certification that the Offeror's Representations and Certifications are current, (https://sam.gov/). The contracting officer will review the proposals received for completeness, and may reject any incomplete proposals. Late submissions shall be treated in accordance with the solicitation provision at FAR 52.212-1(f). Faxed proposals will not be accepted. (xvi) Any questions or concerns regarding this solicitation should be forwarded in writing via e-mail not later than 2:00 pm Eastern Time on Friday, August 5, 2022 to the Contract Specialist, Tammy Oliver, at Olivert@sec.gov. RFP# 50310222R0018 Enclosures & Attachments: Enclosure 1 - Statement of Work (SOW) Enclosure 2 - Contract Terms and Conditions and SEC Instructions Contract Attachments for review that may be required at contract award: Attachment 1 - Non-Disclosure Agreement - Contractor Entity Attachment 2 - Non-Disclosure Agreement - Contractor Personnel Attachment 3 - Authorization for Release of Credit Information Attachment 4 - Request for PERSEC Determination Attachment 5 - Declaration for Federal Employment Attachment 6 - Fingerprint Form