Reasonable Accommodations Training

QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS Question 1: Is this a new contract opportunity? If not, what is the name of the incumbent and are they eligible to bid on the re-compete? Answer 1: This is a recompeted effort and the incumbent is eligible to bid. For additional information concerning the previous contract, you may fill out a formal Freedom Of Information Act (FOIA) request. Question 2: Attachment 1, section 3.6.1 refers to administrative duties in preparation for the start of each class and that the Government Course Manager will provide information such as whether or not there are any special needs of the class participants. Who will be providing the reasonable accommodations for course participants with disabilities? For example, will the Government Course Manager assume responsibility and cost for arranging for the reasonable accommodations, such as CART, American Sign Language Interpreters, assistive listening devices, workshop materials in alternate formats, accessible location, etc? Answer 2: Accommodations will be made and paid for by the Government for any Government employees participating in the course. The participant will need to make the course manager aware of their needs in advance. Question 3: If the Contractor/trainer requires a reasonable accommodation to teach each class, such as CART, who will bear responsibility for cost and arranging for the reasonable accommodation? Answer 3: The Contractor will be responsible for providing their own accommodations to make sure that they are able to perform on the contract. Question 4: A key objective of the course is for participants to be familiar with NGA policy for providing reasonable accommodations in the workplace. Once the contract award is made, will NGA provide the Contractor with the NGA policy and procedures for providing reasonable accommodations? Answer 4: The Government will provide any additional information as Government Furnished Information (GFI) to the contractor as needed, requested and deemed relevant to the contract by the Course Manager and/or Contracting Officer. Question 5: Attachment 1, section 7.0, requires the course content to cover federal regulations for reasonable accommodations in the workplace. Does the scope of the training include ADA reasonable accommodation and its relationship to other laws, such as the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA)? Answer 5: The offeror's course must cover the Course Objectives noted in 7.0 of the PWS and the trainer must be an attorney. The offeror may include additional information within their course material at their own discretion as long as they stay within the 8 hour time frame for instruction. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Instructions for the submissions of Offers and Other Information: 1. This is a combined synopsis/solicitation for commercial services prepared in accordance with the format in Subpart 12.6 and 13, as supplemented with additional information included in this notice. This solicitation document and incorporated provisions and clauses are those in effect through Federal Acquisition Circular 2005-51. 2. All responsible small business sources may submit a proposal in response to this Request for Proposal (RFP). The closing date for receipt of proposals is August 1, 2011 7:00 a.m. Eastern Standard Time (EST). All responses to this RFP, questions/comments shall be submitted via email to Candace I. Johnson (Candace.I.Johnson@nga.mil). No telephone responses will be accepted. LATE OFFERS: Offerors are reminded that e-mail transmissions of a proposal/offer after closing date and time will not constitute a timely submission and WILL NOT be accepted. Questions shall be submitted by July 21, 2011, 12:00 pm EST. Answers will be submitted in an amendment via the Government Point of Entry, the Federal Business Opportunities website (FBO.gov). a. Performance Work Statement: See attachment 1 3. Multiple Training Locations: NGA East Washington, DC Metropolitan area NGA West St. Louis, MO Metropolitan area NOTE: A submission larger than 3MB cannot be received. If submissions are larger than 3MB offeror's may do so in multiple submissions. 4. The Government anticipates awarding a 12 month base plus four one-year options Firm-Fixed-Price contract to an offeror whose proposal represents the best value to the Government. 5. Proposals. The Government will review and conduct a Best Value - Trade-Off evaluation (see Attachment 4 for Evaluation Criteria) of each proposal. All proposals will be screened for compliance with RFP instructions and to ensure proposals are from a responsible source. a. The Government intends to evaluate responses and award an order without discussions. Therefore the responses to the RFP should contain the offeror's best offer. The Government reserves the right to hold discussions if the Contracting Officer determines that it's in the Government's best interest. If award will be made without discussions, offerors may be given the opportunity to clarify certain aspects of proposals or resolve minor or clerical errors. b. The offeror must meet the general standards for a responsible prospective contractor as set forth in FAR 9.104-1(General standards) in order to be considered for award. c. All vendors must be registered in the Central Contractor Registry (CCR) http://www.ccr.gov and in the Online Representations and Certification Application (ORCA) https://orca.bpn.gov/ as a small business with the specified NAICS code prior to the solicitation close date to be considered. 6. Instructions for the submissions of Offers. To aid in evaluation, it is desired that each proposal volume follow the same general format. All proposals shall contain a Title Page, a Table of Contents, and a cross-reference matrix of the proposal to the respective Performance Work Statement requirements and to the respective evaluation criteria. No volume shall exceed 30 pages including: illustrations, charts and title pages, table of contents, indices, and glossaries. Page size shall not exceed 8.5x11. Type shall be font size 12pt, Times New Roman. Sample material may be included as an attachment that will not be included in the page limit. All proposal submissions shall be marked UNCLASSIFIED. 7. Proposal Requirements: All offerors competing for award are required to provide the quote information specified in this RFP, for evaluation. The proposal shall be prepared and submitted in two separate volumes as follows: 1- Technical: The technical approach shall include information/documentation regarding the items quoted in sufficient detail to clearly identify the offeror's understanding and qualifications to accomplish the required work in the Performance Work Statement (PWS). Also included in this volume is Past Performance information, the offeror shall include a minimum of three (3) and a maximum of ten (10) federal government references. Please include contract numbers and government points of contact, including names and current contact information. Also, include any reports from the government and/or other evidence of performance. In addition, the technical volume must include Personnel Requirements including resumes, and a narrative which demonstrates that the offeror understands the requirement and shows the offeror's overall qualifications to accomplish the required work. 2- Price In the price volume, the offeror must include a statement that it either (a) agrees to the terms and conditions of this RFP or (b) it takes exceptions to any terms and conditions of the RFP, and clearly identifies those exceptions. Objections to any of the terms and conditions of this RFP may be considered by the Government to be unacceptable. This section must contain a statement that Offeror's acceptance period is valid for 90 calendar days for the date of receipt by the Government In addition, the price volume of the proposal shall include any supporting information needed to understand the basis for pricing the offer. The Government may reject any proposal, which is materially unbalanced as to prices. An unbalanced proposal is one which is based on prices significantly less for some work and prices which are significantly overstated for other work. An offeror's proposal is presumed to represent best efforts to respond to the RFP. Any inconsistency between promised performance and price should be explained in the price volume of the proposal. Vendors are required to provide a unit price for each course that includes all course material and travel as specified in the PWS as well as a total Contract Line Item Number (CLIN) price for the base as well as each option year. 8. Basis for Award: The Government will evaluate the offeror's ability to address all aspects of the PWS, dated 23 June 2011. The Government will make award to the offeror(s) whose proposal conforms with the RFP and represents the best value to the Government based on the evaluation criteria set forth in attachment 4.