This is a combined synopsis/solicitation for commercial items prepared in accordance with the format in Subpart 12.6, as supplemented with additional information included in this notice. This announcement constitutes the only solicitation; quotes are being requested and a written solicitation will not be issued.
The solicitation number is 2025R3281016 and this solicitation is issued as a request for proposal (RFP).
The solicitation document and incorporated provisions and clauses are those in effect through Federal Acquisition Circular (FAC) 2020-01.
This is a small business set aside. The associated NACIS code is 541380 – Testing Laboratories and the small business size standard is $19,000,000.00. PSC Code is Q301 Medical- Reference Laboratory Testing.
Contract Type: The resulting contract from this solicitation will be a firm fixed priced requirements for services specified in the Scope of Work and for the period set forth herein. Performance of services shall be made only as authorized by the contract and modifications thereto issued by the Contracting Officer.
Place of Performance: The required services shall be performed at the Nogales International Wastewater Treatment Plant (NIWTP), Rio Rico, Arizona, Santa Cruz County.
Payment information: The Contractor will be paid in accordance with FAR 52.232-33 Payment by Electronic Funds Transfer – System for Award Management (July 2013).
Invoice Processing Platform: The U.S. Section International Boundary and Water Commission (USIBWC) has transitioned to an electronic invoicing system. The Invoice Processing Platform (IPP) is a secure, web-based system provided by the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Bureau of the Fiscal Service in partnership with the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. IPP is available at no cost to any commercial vendor or independent contractor doing business with a participating government agency.
Contracting Officer:
Seone M Jones
4191 N. Mesa St.
El Paso, TX 79902
(915) 832-4120
seone.jones@ibwc.gov
Contracting Officer Representative (COR):
The Contracting Officer shall designate a technical representative to act for the Contracting Officer during the contract period. The Contracting Officer's Representative (COR) will act for the Contracting Officer only in technical matters and will not be authorized to commit the Government on any contract terms, conditions, or changes in unit price, total price, quantity, or delivery schedule. Any changes to the contract in unit price, total contract price, quantity, quality, or delivery schedule will be made only by the Contracting Officer by executed modification to the contract.
Site Visit/Pre-Conference/ Due dates information
Please send all RSVPs for the site visit/Pre-Conference to seone.jones@ibwc.gov by 3:00PM (MST) on September 6 , 2024.
The Site Visit will be held on September 11, 2024 at 9:00AM local time in Nogales, AZ, at the Nogales International Wastewater Treatment Plant (NIWTP) in Nogales, Santa Cruz County, Arizona.
Offerors are urged to submit ALL QUESTIONS in writing, in advance by E-Mail to seone.jones@ibwc.gov , referencing the solicitation number RFP 2025R3281016. Questions should be submitted to arrive no later than close of business day September 9, 2024.
While every effort will be made to provide meaningful responses or clarifications to all inquiries, no answer shall be binding by the Government unless submitted in writing by potential offerors and subsequently answered in writing by the Contracting Officer by means of a formal amendment to this solicitation.
Inquiries and questions received by the issuing office seven (7) calendar days or less prior to the proposal due date may not be considered timely and may not receive a written response.
Unless the offeror inserts a longer period of time, proposals will remain valid for a period of 120 calendar days from the date specified for receipt of proposals.
FIRM PRICES FOR OPTION PERIODS
By requesting the offeror to submit prices for periods that extend beyond the basic award period as provided for in the option provision, the Government is in no way bound to purchase any services and/or materials beyond the basic award period. These additional periods and firm prices are for the option provision if the Government so chooses to exercise it.
52.216-1 Type of Contract (Apr 1984)
52.216-20 Definite Quantity (Oct 1995)
The provision at 52.212-1, Instructions to Offerors—Commercial, applies to this acquisition.
The Offeror shall submit a proposal based on the CLIN structure provided in this Solicitation. The Contractor shall provide a narrative addressing technical acceptability. The narrative shall not exceed three (3) pages. There is no page limit on the other items required by the solicitation.
Offers are due by 2:00 PM MST on Friday, September 20, 2024. Offers shall be emailed to Seone M Jones at seone.jones@ibwc.gov. Offers shall confirm receipt.
Evaluation Factors for Award
52.217-5 Evaluation of Options (July 1990)
Except when it is determined in accordance with FAR l 7.206(b) not to be in the Government's best interests, the Government will evaluate offers for award purposes by adding the total price for all options to the total price for the basic requirement. Evaluation of options will not obligate the Government to exercise the option(s).
(End of provision)
Basis for Award
Award will be made to the lowest priced, technically acceptable proposal meeting or exceeding the acceptability standards for non-cost factors. The following factors will be evaluated: (1) Technical Capability, (2) Personnel Experience and Qualifications, (3) Financial Responsibility, (4) Price, and (5) Past Performance. A Government determination that an Offeror's proposal is not acceptable for any of the factors shall render the Offeror's entire proposal as not acceptable.
Offeror shall submit the following information with its proposal.
Factor 1: Technical Capability
1. Each proposal shall be accompanied with a certificate issued by ADHS within the last 12 months under R9-14-609. The certificate shall demonstrate the bidder is proficient in testing and analysis of the parameter to be sampled under this contract.
2. Offerors shall submit the physical address and copy of permit of the lab that is to be used to test and analyze parameters with short holding time.
3. Offerors shall submit a written certification that it meets the requirement of Article 2.1 of the Scope of Work including but not limited to:
a. LIMS requirement
b. Laboratory equipment that meet the LOQ requirement
c. Qualified personnel with experience in laboratory services.
4. Each Offeror shall complete the unit parameter prices in Attachment I to include all charges and profts for providing the sample containers and preservatives, sampling (for Ground Water), handling, testing, analyzing, and reporting; and providing all material and services under this contract. Bidder with different unit parameter prices for different years shall complete Attachment I for each year.
5.Each Offeror shall determine the analytes required by the permits in each type of laboratory report according to the sampling frequencies. Offeror shall then compute the unit report rates in Attachment II form the individual parameter's rates.
Factor 2: Personnel experience and qualifications
Offeror shall provide a staffing plan, including number and type of positions. Include brief position description for each classification. The offeror shall provide resumes that demonstrate the appropriate directly related work experience, education and experience staff members. Indicate availability, current employer, work location, and assignment of staff members. Offerors shall explain how their proposed staffing will ensure that all requirements of the contract are met.
Factor 3: Financial Responsibility
1) Offeror shall provide audited financial statements for the past two (2) years to include, as a minimum: net worth, income (profit and loss) statements, balance sheet, or if publicly held, all annual reports.
2) Offeror shall provide information describing any circumstances in which offeror has failed to complete work awarded under any contract with name of contact person and telephone number.
3) Offeror shall provide information, court case number, style and a description of any situation where the offeror has been named as a defendant in any litigation brought about under a operations and management contract, including name of company and contract person/phone number.
4) Offeror shall provide information and explain circumstances of fines or enforcement actions against the offeror by any agency having jurisdiction over labor laws.
5) Offeror shall provide information and explain circumstances of fines or enforcement actions against the offeror by any agency having jurisdiction over health, safety, loss of life and welfare issues.
6) Financial Stability and Professional Reputation of the Firm will be rated as one of the following:
A) Acceptable
B) Not Acceptable
Factor 4: Pricing
1. Offerors shall not front load the price. In particular unit parameter and report prices may not decrease from any given year to the next. Prices shall remain the same or increase slightly from one year to the next. Offerors with declining unit rates over time will not be considered. This will be lowest priced technically acceptable offer. Offeror with the lowest price will be considered for award.
Factor 5: Past Performance
1. Offeror shall provide a list of all current and past contracts for the same or substantially similar (same size and larger and complexity) work for the last three (3) years. Contracts listed may include Federal, State, and local government and private/commercial. The evaluation shall take into account past performance information (current and relevant information) regarding operations, personnel administration/labor management and subcontractors. Offerors that are newly formed entities without prior contracts shall provide information regarding predecessor companies, key personnel who have relevant experience, or subcontractors that will perform major or critical aspects of the requirement. Include the following information:
Name of Contracting Activity
Contract Number
Contract Type
Total Contract Value
Contact Name and Telephone Number
2) Past Performance will be evaluated as one of the following:
A) Acceptable
B) Not Acceptable
52.212-2 Evaluation-Commercial Items.
As prescribed in 12.301(c), the Contracting Officer may insert a provision substantially as follows:
Evaluation-Commercial Items (Nov 2021)
(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:
_____”See Basis for Award Listed above”______________ ________________________________________________ ________________________________________________
Technical and past performance, when combined, are less important when compared to 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)
The clause at 52.212-3, Offeror Representations and Certifications—Commercial Items, applies to this acquisition.
NOTE: The Offeror shall complete only paragraph (b) of this provision if the Offeror has completed the annual representations and certification electronically via the System for Award Management (SAM) website accessed through http://www.acquisition.gov.
The clause at 52.212-4, Contract Terms and Conditions—Commercial Items, applies to this acquisition.
The clause at 52.232-18, Availability of Funds, applies to this acquisition.
The clause at 52.212-5, Contract Terms and Conditions Required To Implement Statutes or Executive Orders—Commercial Items, applies to this acquisition. The following FAR clauses cited in the clause are applicable to the acquisition.
52.203-6 Restrictions on Subcontractor Sales to the Government.
52.203-13 Contractor Code of Business Ethics and Conduct.
52.209-10 Prohibition on Contracting with Inverted Domestic Corporations.
52.219-6 Notice of Total Small Business Set-Aside.
52.219-8 Utilization of Small Business Concerns.
52.219-14 Limitations on Subcontracting.
52.219-28 Post-Award Small Business Program Rerepresentation.
52.222-3 Convict Labor.
52.222-21 Prohibition of Segregated Facilities.
52.222-26 Equal Opportunity.
52.222-35 Equal Opportunity for Veterans.
52.222-36 Equal Opportunity for Workers with Disabilities.
52.222-37 Employment Reports on Veterans.
52.222-40 Notification of Employee Rights Under the National Labor Relations Act.
52.222-50 Combating Trafficking in Persons.
52.222-54 Employment Eligibility Verification.
52.223-18 Encouraging Contractor Policies to Ban Text Messaging While Driving.
52.225-1 Buy American-Supplies
52.225-13 Restrictions on Certain Foreign Purchases.
52.232-33 Payment by Electronic Funds Transfer-System for Award Management.
52.222-41 Service Contract Labor Standards.
52.222-42 Statement of Equivalent Rates for Federal Hires.
52.222-43 Fair Labor Standards Act and Service Contract Labor Standards-Price Adjustment (Multiple Year and Option Contracts).
52.222-55 Minimum Wages Under Executive Order 13658.
ATTACHMENTS:
-CLIN STRUCTURE
-WAGE DETERMINATION
-SCOPE OF WORK
