Q--Police Psychological Assessments

1. This is a combined synopsis/solicitation for commercial services/items prepared in accordance with the format in FAR Subpart 12.6 in conjunction with FAR Part 13, as supplemented with additional information included in this notice. This announcement constitutes the only solicitation; quotes are being requested and a separate written solicitation will not be issued. a. Project Title: Police Assessments b. Description: VA Loma Linda Healthcare System is seeking a contractor to provide annual and initial psychological assessments for current and potential police officers. c. Project Location: VA Loma Linda Healthcare System, 11201 Benton Street, Loma Linda, CA 92357 d. Solicitation Type - Number: Request for Quotes (RFQ) - 36C26219Q0694. e. Set Aside: This solicitation is issued as a small business set aside. f. Applicable NAICS code: 621330 g. Small Business Size Standard: $7.5 Million h. Type of Contract: Firm Fixed Price i. Period of Performance: Base year and four (4) one-year options, beginning 6/1/2019 5/31/2020 2. Statement of Work a. Purpose. The purpose of this contract is to acquire psychological evaluations and testing for VA Loma Linda Police Officers to determine an officer s suitability to perform the duties of a police officer as well as to carry a firearm. The Contractor shall provide all necessary labor, supervision, equipment supplies, materials, and travel to provide psychological evaluations and testing for VA Loma Linda Police Officers. b. Background. The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) requires VA Police Officers to carry firearms. It is also mandated that all current Police Service officers and new hires undergo an initial psychological evaluation as well as an annual evaluation. Officers encounters are often with mentally ill, irrational, or disturbed persons who, although assaultive or destructive, must be handled with understanding, full control of force, and unimpeded judgment. c. Required Services. (1) The Contractor shall provide initial and annual psychological evaluation of all VA Police Officers (including VA Police Supervisors, Training Officer, Detective, Chief and Deputy Chief). All VA Police Officers shall be re-examined annually to determine their continued emotional suitability to perform the duties required of a VA Police Officer. (2) The Contractor shall provide the following pre-employment psychological evaluations for job candidates given a conditional job offer and annual psychological evaluations for incumbent police officers: (a) Pre-Employment Psychological Evaluations for job candidates given a conditional job offer: Personality Assessment Inventory (PAI) California Personality Inventory (CPI) Personal History Questionnaire Clinical Interview Written Report (b) Annual Psychological Evaluations for incumbent police officers in accordance with the Secretary s Directive establishing the authority to arm VA Police Officers. The Office of Security and Law Enforcement and Mental Health Strategic Health Care Group in Headquarters have jointly developed guidance to assist in conducting psychological evaluations. This guidance is designed to determine an officer s capability of conducting designated functional requirements essential to the duties of a VA Police Officer, including an officer s suitability to carry a firearm. The psychological evaluation is limited in the manner described in the Chief of Psychology Service s memo to the Occupational Health Physician dated August 30, 1996. The components of that evaluation include, and are limited to: Clinical Interview Written Report (3) Re-test, if during the psychological evaluation for incumbent police officers, the psychologist has an articulable reason to doubt the officer is capable of performing the duties of a police officer (including the use of a firearm). (4) The Contractor shall provide results/reports in the form of a one-page letter to the Occupational Health Physician at the VA Loma Linda Medical Center. The report will indicate Pass/Fail; Recommended/Not Recommended for use of a firearm at the VA Medical Center. A second copy will be sent to the VA Loma Linda Chief of Police, within five (5) business days of evaluation. (5) Privacy Act Notification: Any reports, as well as internal working documents generated by the Contractor, are property of the VA and shall be kept confidential from the officer. The Contractor and/or staff are not authorized to disclose any information pertaining to a VA employee to any source. Any request for information shall be forwarded to the Occupational Health Physician. (6) Services will be provided at the Contractor s office. The Contractor s office shall be within a 20-mile radius from the VA Loma Linda Medical Center. The Contracting Officer Representative (COR shall notify the Contractor of the patient s name and type of evaluation required. d. Deliverables - First Copy: The first copy of results/reports shall be discussed with, and mailed to the VA Loma Linda Occupational Health Physician. - Second Copy: A second copy of the results/reports shall be mailed to the VA Loma Linda Chief of Police. e. Staff Qualifications The Contractor shall provide a licensed professional psychologist. The individual must, at a minimum hold a PhD in Psychology, and a license to practice independently in the State of California. ACCESS TO VA INFORMATION AND VA INFORMATION SYSTEMS a. A contractor/subcontractor shall request logical (technical) or physical access to VA information and VA information systems for their employees, subcontractors, and affiliates only to the extent necessary to perform the services specified in the contract. b. All contractors, subcontractors, and third-party servicers and associates working with VA information are subject to the same investigative requirements as those of VA appointees or employees who have access to the same types of information. The level and process of background security investigations for contractors must be in accordance with VA Directive and Handbook 0710, Personnel Suitability and Security Program. The Office for Operations, Security, and watchfulness is responsible for these policies and procedures. c. As applicable, Contract personnel who require access to national security programs must have a valid security clearance. National Industrial Security Program (NISP) was established by Executive Order 12829 to ensure that cleared U.S. defense industry contract personnel safeguard the classified information in their possession while performing work on contracts, programs, bids, or research and development efforts. The Department of Veterans Affairs does not have a Memorandum of Agreement with Defense Security Service (DSS). Verification of a Security Clearance must be processed through the Special Security Officer located in the Planning and National Security Service within the Office of Operations, Security, and Preparedness. d. As applicable, custom software development and outsourced operations must be located in the U.S. to the maximum extent practical. If such services are proposed to be performed abroad and are not disallowed by other VA policy or mandates, the contractor/subcontractor must state where all non-U.S. services are provided and detail a security plan, deemed to be acceptable by VA, specifically to address mitigation of the resulting problems of communication, control, data protection, and so forth. Location within the U.S. may be an evaluation factor. e. The contractor or subcontractor must notify the Contracting Officer immediately when an employee working on a VA system or with access to VA information is reassigned or leaves the contractor or subcontractor s employment. The Contracting Officer must also be notified immediately by the contractor or subcontractor prior to an unfriendly termination. VA INFORMATION CUSTODIAL LANGUAGE a. Information made available to the contractor or subcontractor by the 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 onsite 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 must 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 must 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 must be sent to the VA Contracting Officer within 30 days of termination of the contract. d. The contractor/subcontractor must 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 shall 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 must 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 may use and disclose VA information only in two other situations: (i) in response to a qualifying order of a court of competent jurisdiction, or (ii) with VA s prior written approval. The contractor/subcontractor must 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 must complete a Contractor Security Control Assessment (CSCA) on a yearly basis and provide it to the COTR. 3. The solicitation document and incorporated provisions and clauses are those in effect through Federal Acquisition Circular 2019-02, dated 5/6/2019. The following provisions and clauses apply to this solicitation and can be found in enclosure 2. a. FAR 52.212-1, Instructions to Offerors Commercial Items b. FAR 52.212-2, Evaluation -- Commercial Items c. FAR 52.212-4, Contract Terms and Conditions -- Commercial Items d. FAR 52.212-5, Contract Terms and Conditions Required To Implement Statutes Or Executive Orders -- Commercial Items 4. Submit written offers in accordance with the following instructions, as well as Addendum to FAR 52.212-1, Instruction to Offerors. Oral offers will not be accepted. Complete and submit enclosure 1 via email no later than 10am PDT Wednesday May 29, 2019 to contact@example.gov. Ensure the following are completed and/or included in the quote packet: a. Vendor Information b. Acknowledgement of amendments c. Concurrence/non-concurrence with solicitation terms, conditions, and provisions d. Schedule of services e. FAR 52.212-3, Offeror Representations and Certifications -- Commercial Items f. Copy of psychologist s license to practice in California.