FSD Student Hire Program

Document Type: Combined Solicitation Solicitation Number: 174710 - Forensic Student Hire Program Posted Date: May 8, 2009 Original Response Date: May 29, 2009 Classification Code: 7361 - EMPLOYMENT AGENCIES Set Aside: None NAICS Code: 561320 - Temporary Help Services Description This is a combined synopsis/solicitation for commercial services under Full and Open Competition prepared in accordance with the format in FAR Subpart 12.6. The U.S. Secret Service (USSS) Forensics Services Division's mission is to utilize flexible entrepreneurial business models to support innovative technologies via strategic vendor and integration partnerships 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. Solicitation number 174710 is issued as a Request for Proposal (RFP) through Federal Business Opportunities. This Solicitation is compromised of: I. OVERVIEW OF REQUIREMENT II. FORMAT AND SUBMISSION OF PROPOSAL (PARTS A, B, and C) III. EVALUATION IV. PROVISIONS V. CONTRACT CLAUSES VI. ADDITIONAL INFORMATION FOR OFFERORS ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ I. OVERVIEW OF REQUIREMENT The Forensics Services Division supports several program projects that are critical to the U.S. Secret Service's mission. The Forensic Information System for Handwriting (FISH) project, the Questioned Identification Documents database (QID), the Watermark database, Live-Scan and Automated Fingerprint Identification System (AFIS) projects, as well as chemistry projects. The project programs will allow the opportunity for developmental and career experience in a variety of specialized skill sets. STAFFING AGENCY REQUIREMENTS: The staffing agency will provide a minimum of 2 and possibly up to 20 Graduate Students in support of the program projects for the US Secret Service's Forensic Services Division (FSD). Additional projects may be identified and developed throughout the life of the contract. The Graduate Students provided by the Staffing Agency will have obtained an undergraduate degree in either forensic science, chemistry or are in the process of obtaining, or already possess, a graduate level degree in either forensic science or chemistry from an accredited educational institution. (Exceptions will be made regarding degree status for Graduate Students currently employed and working within the Forensic Services Division and on a case-by-case basis. For example, a Graduate Student may have 30 undergraduate credits in chemistry, but their degree may have been awarded in another discipline). The USSS reserves the right to decline a Graduate Student that has been selected by the staffing agency. The staffing agency will be responsible for recruiting the Graduate Students and providing a Secret clearance for each student. Once an applicant has been selected, their security clearance will be completed in a timely manner. The staffing agency will invoice in an accurate and timely manner. Timecards for each Graduate Student will be available for approval by a USSS/FSD representative. The staffing agency will provide quarterly status reports to the appointed USSS/FSD representative reflecting invoices, security clearances and pending issues. Additional Information: All proposed Graduate Students will also be tasked to aid in other forensic related duties as described in the statement of work identified in individual task orders. Work hours will be scheduled by each Branch Chief between the hours of 7:00 am and 5:30 pm Monday through Friday. The Graduate Student shall not be required to more than 40 hours per week. No Graduate Student will be allowed to work in the building before 7 AM or after 5:30 PM. No Graduate Student will be allowed to work in the building on Saturday, Sunday or Holidays. The Graduate Students will attend all meetings pertinent to their position. All work will be performed at USSS Washington, DC office location. Reference: See attachment "A" for full description of each FSD program projects. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ II. FORMAT AND SUBMISSION OF PROPOSAL (PARTS A, B, and C) Please provide your response in "12pt Times New Roman font 1" margins. Supplier response shall not exceed 20 pages. Price should not be included in your technical proposal. Offeror Information: Offeror shall provide point of contact's name, point of contact's email address, and point of contact's telephone number. PART A. Past Performance of the Staffing Agency Do not include cost/pricing information. See Part C The Past Performance proposal shall be provided to the Government under separate cover clearly identified as "Past Performance Proposal." The offeror shall submit a description of three (3) recent and/or current prime Government contracts and major Government subcontracts within the past 5 years. These shall be relevant to the effort required by this posting. Commercial contracts may be included if necessary. Note: Offerors are reminded that both independent data and data provided by offerors in their proposals may be used to evaluate offeror past performance. The Government may not necessarily interview any or all of the sources provided. Also, the Government does not assume the duty to search for data to cure the problems it finds in the proposals. The burden of providing thorough and complete past performance information remains with the offerors. Proposals that do not contain information requested under this factor risk rejection. PART B. Technical Proposal Do not include cost/pricing information. See Part C. The Technical proposal shall be provided to the Government under separate cover, clearly identified as "Technical Proposal." The offeror shall provide a technical description of its approach to fulfilling this requirement. The proposal shall address the requirements as outlined, and describe in detail its planned procedures and approach providing personnel to fill the positions described herein. Include the rationale for the technical approach proposed for the accomplishment tasks. 1. Describe your agency's proposed method of invoicing, timeline for invoicing, notification of outstanding invoices and invoice corrections. This should include: documenting and approving hours performed. 2. Describe your agency's method for providing timely security clearances. 3. Develop and submit a Performance Review Plan; (Describe it). 4. Describe in detail the Offerors methodology in Recruitment, Screening and Retaining Qualified Graduate Students. Invoicing Staffing Agency will be required to submit all invoices to the U.S. Secret Service's designated billing office; at the end of each billing cycle. The Offeror proposal shall fully describe how this process shall be completed. Quarterly Reports Staffing Agency will be required to provide a written quarterly status report to inform the U.S. Secret Service of its progress and to identify any anticipated problems. A negative report should be generated indicating "None" or Non-Applicable" for no status change or no reporting for the quarter. Security Requirements All proposed Graduate Students working under this requirement must be U.S. citizens, and are required to possess a SECRET level, Defense Security Service (DSS), Defense Industrial Security Clearance Office (DISCO) or equivalent clearance. Documentation will be required to confirm such clearances, including date of clearance issuance, the Cage Code, and a DSS/DISCO contact. Staffing Agency is responsible for processing all personnel documentation for Graduate Students who will be working on Government site and must complete a Personnel Access Application form (SSF 3237). Prior to award, the successful awardee shall be required to provide the name and contact information for the Contract Security Representative (CSR) of their firm to USSS Personnel. The CSR shall be the contact between the Graduate Student and the USSS/RPS Project Security Agent. The CSR shall handle all forms necessary to obtain security clearances and access approvals. Graduate Students who successfully pass the background investigation must provide USSS personnel with that information. Graduate Students will also be required to complete an Agreement to Protect Non-Public Information. Graduate Students will be required to have a SECRET level clearance, therefore the offeror must submit the following documents and others as required for each respective Graduate Student immediately upon notice of contract award or when new Graduate Student replacement personnel are needed before starting any work under any contract tasking: Disclosure and Authorization Pertaining to Consumer Reports Pursuant to the Fair Credit Reporting Act. SSF 3237 - Graduate Student Personnel Access Application (see Attachment B) SSF 4024 - Conditional Access to Sensitive But Unclassified Information Nondisclosure Agreement (see Attachment C) Provide evidence of the required security clearance for proposed personnel and for new replacements before being allowed access to Secret Service facilities and systems or to begin work on any task. All unclassified Secret Service information is considered law enforcement sensitive and must be protected as such. No Secret Service information is to be taken off-site. Any exceptions must be approved in advance by the COTR. Duplication or disclosure of the data and other information to which the Graduate Student shall have access as a result of this contract is prohibited. The Staffing Agency and their Graduate Student(s) agree to not disclose said data, any interpretations and/or translations thereof, or data derivative there from, to unauthorized parties in contravention of these provisions, without the prior written approval of the Contracting Officer or the party in which title thereto is wholly vested. Graduate Students are subject to the same stipulations and may be held responsible for any violations of confidentiality. Work on this project may require that Staffing Agency and Student personnel to have access to Privacy Information and shall adhere to the Privacy Act, Title 5 of the U.S. Code, Section 552a and applicable agency rules and regulations. PART C. Pricing Proposal: The Pricing proposal shall be provided to the Government under separate cover, clearly identified as "Response to "Pricing Proposal" 1. Provide pricing in a separate MS excel spreadsheet including base year and four (1) year periods as depicted in the table below; illustrate price broken-down by labor hours for each year period of performance including base year. Please provide cost for each student hire category for each period; base through period ending June 30, 2014. Total Hours for each year period is 10,000. Please illustrate fully burdened cost for each student hire category using MS Excel. We are not suggesting you use our example format below to illustrate your cost (optional); although we do strongly suggest you use the student hire category and hours stated below for each period. STUDENT HIRE COST DATA BASE June 01, 2009 through May 31, 2010 Student Hire Category Estimated Hours Fully Burdened Labor Rates AFIS 1600 $ QID 2294 FISH 1276 QD 1307 Research Chemistry 1307 LP Chemistry 1307 Period 1 June 01, 2010 through May 31, 2011 Student Hire Category Hours Proposed Labor Rates AFIS 1600 $ QID 2294 FISH 1276 QD 1307 Research Chemistry 1307 LP Chemistry 1307 Period 2 June 01, 2011 through May 31, 2012 Student Hire Category Hours Proposed Labor Rates AFIS 1600 $ QID 2294 FISH 1276 QD 1307 Research Chemistry 1307 LP Chemistry 1307 Period 3 June 01, 2012 through May 31, 2013 Student Hire Category Hours Proposed Labor Rates AFIS 1600 $ QID 2294 FISH 1276 QD 1307 Research Chemistry 1307 LP Chemistry 1307 Period 4 June 01, 2013 through May 31, 2014 Student Hire Category Hours Proposed Labor Rates AFIS 1600 $ QID 2294 FISH 1276 QD 1307 Research Chemistry 1307 LP Chemistry 1307 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Submission of: Experience; Past Performance; Technical Proposal and Pricing. Proposal submission via email is required. Your entire email must not be greater than 3 MB and virus-free; if your proposal is above that limit, please send multiple emails. Faxed proposals will not be accepted. Please ensure "174710 Forensic Student Hire Program" in the subject line. If you do not receive a response, please call Sheila at 202.406.6816. Proposals are due by 12:00 noon EST on Friday, May 29, 2009 addressed to Sheila Redmond at Sheila.Redmond@usss.dhs.gov. The Government will not be responsible for any costs incurred by the vendor in response to this solicitation. III. EVALUATION A. EVALUATION FACTORS In accordance with FAR PAR 12 a) Experience b) Past Performance c) Technical Offerors methodology in Recruitment, Screening and Retaining Qualified Graduate Students. Offerors proposed method of invoicing, timeline for invoicing, notification of outstanding invoices and invoice corrections. To include documenting and approving hours performed. d) Price B. Evaluation factors have been listed in order of importance. Award will be made to the offeror that demonstrates the "Best Value" to the Government. Experience, Past Performance and Technical factors when combined will be more important that pricing. . The importance of price will increase as the difference in technical comparisons decreases. Award(s) will be made relative to best overall value to the Government. Offers must meet all minimum qualifications, but offers which exceed minimums may be rated more favorably. The Government will not, however, pay an unreasonable amount for additional technical capability and will compare any additional capability to any additional price. Since the Government is interested in obtaining the best overall value, award may not go to the lowest overall price if any factors considered justify a higher price. Notwithstanding that technical capability and past performance are more importance than price, should all offers appear equal, price will become the determining factor in the award decision. Price Analysis will be conducted after completion of Technical Evaluation. The Government will evaluate offers for award purposes by adding the total price for (4) one year periods or intervals to the total price for the basic requirement. The Government may determine that an offer is unacceptable if the one year period or interval prices are significantly unbalanced. Evaluation of one year intervals or periods shall not obligate the Government to exercise that year period or interval(s). IV. PROVISIONS The following Provisions are applicable: FAR 17.104 Multi-year Contracting IV. CONTRACT CLAUSES The following Clauses are applicable: FAR 52.204-7 Central Graduate Student Registration FAR 52.212-1 Instructions to Offerors--Commercial Items FAR 52.212-2 Evaluation-Commercial Items - Award will be based on: a) Experience; b) Past Performance; c) Technical Offerors methodology in Recruitment, Screening and Retaining Qualified Graduate Students. Offerors proposed method of invoicing, timeline for invoicing, notification of outstanding invoices and invoice corrections. To include documenting and approving hours performed. 52.216-31 Time-and Materials/Labor Hour Proposal Requirements - Commercial Item Acquisition FAR 52.212-3 Offerors Representations and Certifications--Commercial Items FAR 52-212-4 Contract Terms and Conditions--Commercial Items FAR 52-212.5 Contract Terms and Conditions Required to Implement Statutes or Executive Orders--Commercial Items 52.217-8 Option to Extend Services 52.252-2 Clauses Incorporated by reference. 3052.204-71 Graduate Student employee access. 3052.209-70 Prohibition on Contracts with Corporate Expatriates 3052.204-90 Unauthorized Use of the U.S. Secret Service Name ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ V. ADDITIONAL INFORMATION FOR OFFERORS Since this is a competitive requirement, please do not telephone with questions, but email them between May 8, 2009 and May 18, 2009. Please allow a minimum of five days for response to questions. Questions should be submitted via email in Microsoft word format to Sheila.Redmond@usss.dhs.gov. Contract Type: Indefinite-Delivery Indefinite Quantity - fixed price/labor hour. Minimum guarantee: $200K Maximum threshold over 5 year period: $1.2 million Period of Performance: This requirement will be awarded based on the following period of performance with four (1) one year periods. Total contract performance five years; from date of award through May 31, 2014. Base Year: from date of award (anticipated June) through May 31, 2010 Period One: June 1, 2010 through May 31, 2011 Period Two: June 1, 2011 through May 31, 2012 Period Three: June 1, 2012 through May 31, 2013 Period Four: June 1, 2013 through May 31, 2014 Please note that the agency will not pay relocation fees. The Secret Service COTR will be the point of contact for providing Government Furnished Equipment: For work is to be conducted on-site at a Secret Service location, the Government will furnish the following: Suitable space for each on-site employee Access to local telephone service and equipment. Computer and other equipment needed to perform duties on USSS site will be provided