MODIFICATION
R -- OIG Audit Services
- Notice Date
- 8/22/2005
- Notice Type
- Modification
- NAICS
- 541990
— All Other Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services
- Contracting Office
- Railroad Retirement Board, Acquisition Management Division, OA, Procurement Section, 844 North Rush Street, 9th Floor NE, Chicago, IL, 60611-2092
- ZIP Code
- 60611-2092
- Solicitation Number
- RRB05R005
- Response Due
- 9/7/2005
- Archive Date
- 9/22/2005
- Description
- *This Amendment contains the second part of the Combined synopsis/solicitation RFP RRB05R005, sections G through I. G.TECHNICAL PROPOSAL INSTRUCTIONS: A complete and comprehensive technical proposal shall be submitted, specifically addressing all factors, including phasing of tasks, methods to be utilized, and scheduling of human resources to satisfactorily complete all issues and tasks covered in the statement of work. The data and information should be keyed to each paragraph of the technical proposal requirements outlined below. The technical proposal shall not contain any reference to or mention of the cost of services to be provided under this contract. G1.Problem and Approach: a. Understanding of the Statement of Work: The offeror's proposal shall include, in the offeror's own words, a statement of the problem, scope and purpose of the project, and demonstrate his/her complete understanding of the project's intent and requirements. b. Technical Approach: The offeror's proposal shall disclose his/her technical approach in as much detail as possible, including, but not limited to, the requirements in this section. The proposal shall outline the recommended approaches to be followed in arriving at the best solutions for the statement of work's requirements as described in Section C of this RFP. To this end, the recommendation and technical approach should be specific, detailed, and complete enough to clearly and fully demonstrate that the offeror thoroughly understands the intent of the statement of work, together with proposed solution approaches. A statement by the offeror that the offeror understands the work required and will comply with the statement of work is insufficient and inadequate. Phrases similar to, "standard procedures will be employed" and "well-known techniques will be used," are equally unacceptable. While the RRB recognizes that not all the technical work to be accomplished can be fully detailed in the original proposal, the technical proposal must include enough detail so as to provide the technical team with information that demonstrates how the offeror proposes to comply with the issued statement of work. A detailed explanation of the techniques and procedures the offeror proposes to follow must accompany this information. G2.SPECIALIZED REVIEW/AUDIT EXPERIENCE: Provide a detailed narrative for the areas listed below describing the offeror?s experience within the past 3 years for federal, state or local agencies or federal corporations with annual expenditures of $1 billion or more, and/or large private sector clients with annual revenues in excess of $500 million. Engagements for private sector clients shall have been prepared in accordance with attestation standards promulgated by the AICPA. Engagements for federal, state or local entities shall have been prepared in accordance with standards applicable to attestation engagements, financial related audits or performing audits as set forth in GAO?s Government Auditing Standards. The subject matter should include a significant statistical or actuarial component for an entity, the size and type described above, within the past 3 years in accordance with those standards cited above. G2a.Audit and Attest Experience: At a minimum the offeror must demonstrate experience in performing at least one audit or attestation engagement. G2b.Internal Control Review Experience: At a minimum the offeror must demonstrate experience in assessing and reporting on internal control structures, in connection with audit or attestation engagements. G3.REFERENCES/PAST PERFORMANCE: Provide primary and alternate contacts, including names and telephone numbers of at least three different clients who have contracted with and received audit or attestation services from the offeror (within the last five years) that included a significant actuarial or statistical component. These individuals will be contacted to provide an overall assessment of your firm's contract performance. G4.OTHER TECHNICAL EXPERIENCE: At a minimum, the offeror must demonstrate through narrative descriptions/discussions that it has expertise/capability in the areas described below, including specific mention of the type(s) of transactions, methodology and financial exposure for each of the areas below. The offeror must provide a positive statement of affirmation that the expertise/capability described /discussed in its narrative will be made available to perform the work described in Section C (Statement of Work) of this RFP. a. Using Continuous Stratified Random Sampling: applying continuous stratified random sampling to business applications b. Using Random Sampling: applying random sampling to business applications. c. Evaluating Statistical Estimates: evaluating statistical estimates used to settle and or/report financial transactions. d. Evaluating Statistical Models: evaluating statistical models used to estimate, settle and/or report financial transactions. G5.QUALITY CONTROL: Offerors subject to professional peer review requirements shall provide a copy of its most recent peer review and a positive statement of affirmation that all staff to be assigned to this engagement who hold publicly or privately regulated professional designations are in good standing with all applicable state boards, regulatory agencies and professional associations. At a minimum, an offeror must affirm that the offeror and all publicly regulated professionals who will be assigned to this engagement are in good standing with all state boards and regulatory agencies. G6.QUALIFICATIONS OF THE ENGAGEMENT TEAM : a. General Experience: Provide resumes of partners, managers, seniors, EDP auditors, statisticians and actuaries proposed to perform the audit work requested in this RFP. Resumes submitted must indicate the following: position and years of experience in audit or attest engagements. At a minimum, the offeror must present resumes for the individuals proposed. The minimum average total number of years of experience in audit or attest engagements for persons assigned to this engagement is 8 years or more for partners, 5 years or more for managers, 2 years or more for seniors and 2 years or more for statisticians, actuaries and EDP specialists. b. Government Experience: Detail attest engagement experience of the type requested by this RFP, including large Federal, state or local government agencies or federal corporations with annual expenditures (budget authority) of $1 billion or more, and/or large private sector clients with annual revenues in excess of $500 million. At a minimum, the offeror must present all information demonstrating that the engagement team members have experience auditing Federal, state or local agencies or federal corporations of the size and type described above averaging 1 year for partners, 1 year for managers, 1 year for seniors and 6 months for EDP auditors, statisticians and actuaries. c. Professional Activities: The offeror should demonstrate the professional qualifications of proposed staff by describing membership in professional organizations, books or articles published, speeches given or awards received, all of which must be related to the field of accounting and/or auditing. At a minimum, information provided must demonstrate that at least 50% of the audit team to be assigned to the engagement are members of recognized professional organizations; e.g., AICPA, Association of Government Accountants (AGA), Institute of Internal Auditors (IIA), Society of Actuaries. [Additional consideration will be given where those members of the engagement team have also published an article in a professional journal or equivalent; taught or lectured on accounting, auditing, actuarial or statistical methods through a university, professional society, or in-house training program]. G7.ENGAGEMENT APPROACH AND WORK PLAN: The offeror must demonstrate an understanding of the scope of the work to be done and a sound technical approach. Additionally, the narrative should include a description and indication of the offeror's ability to apply Government Auditing Standards to audits and attestation engagements as well as to the requirements of this RFP and to prepare the reports and other deliverables cited in Sections F2.The offeror shall demonstrate:(a) realistic time estimates for each audit phase and, (b) the ability to meet the reporting deadlines specified in Section F4. At a minimum, the offeror must demonstrate through a proposed engagement approach that deadlines required by the Deliverables can be met in a timely manner. G8.The Offeror Shall Demonstrate The Following: a. Initial planning designed to develop an understanding of the subject matter of the engagement. b. An anticipated methodology that directly addresses the requirements of the statement of work (Section C). c. An engagement approach that includes an evaluation of the management and information system controls sufficient to meet the requirements set forth in the statement of work (section C). d. An engagement approach that indicates work will be performed and reports prepared in accordance with the requirements of GAO?s Government Auditing Standards. At a minimum, the offeror must present a general approach to the engagement demonstrating that the review methodology meets the requirements of GAO?s Government Auditing Standards. The offeror should discuss one or more potential problems (either a technical, administrative and/or managerial nature) that could arise during the engagement, and develop strategies for effectively dealing with these problems. At a minimum, the offeror must discuss at least one potential problem. H.EVALUATION AND AWARD. H1.GENERAL: 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, cost or price and other factors, specified elsewhere in this solicitation, considered. b. The Government may (i) reject any or all offers if such action is in the public interest, (ii) accept other than the lowest offer, and (iii) waive informalities and minor irregularities in offers received. c. The Government may award a contract on the basis of initial offers received, without discussions. Therefore, each initial offer should contain the offeror's best terms from a cost or price and technical standpoint. d. A written award or acceptance of 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 offers specified expiration time, the Government may accept an offer (or part of an offer, as provided in paragraph (c) above), whether or not there are negotiations after its receipt, unless a written notice of withdrawal is received before award. Negotiations conducted after receipt of an offer do not constitute a rejection or counteroffer by the Government. e. Neither financial data submitted with an offer, nor representations concerning facilities or financing, will form a part of the resulting contract. However, if the resulting contract contains a clause providing for price reduction for defective cost or pricing data, the contract price will be subject to reduction if cost or pricing data furnished is incomplete, inaccurate, or not current. H2.AWARD: The award of a contract resulting from this solicitation will be made to the responsive and responsible offeror whose proposal is considered by the OIG to provide the greatest value to the Government. The following formula will be used as a guide by the OIG in determining which offer provides the greatest benefit. Total Proposal Score = (Technical Score) + (Price Score) For purposes of this evaluation the relative weighing of technical factors to price factors shall be 3:1. H3.PRICE PROPOSAL EVALUATION: The total evaluated price of an offer is the firm fixed price quoted by the Offeror. H4.TECHNICAL PROPOSAL EVALUATION: Offerors shall comply with the format and content instructions outlined in Section G. Offers deemed deficient in this regard may, at the OIG's discretion, be declared nonresponsive to the terms of this solicitation and may be rejected. Responsive proposals will be evaluated to determine the relative technical merit of each response. Technical proposals will be evaluated using the following criteria in order of priority. H4.a.Total Experience of Firm: (1) Experience in performing and reporting on attestation engagements with actuarial or statistical components for federal agencies. (2) Experience in performing and reporting on attestation engagements with significant actuarial or statistical components for public or private companies. (3) Experience in applying continuous stratified random sampling in financial applications.(4) Experience in applying random sampling in financial applications.(5) Experience evaluating statistical models.(6) Experience evaluating statistical estimates.(7) Experience in performing and reporting on performance or financial-related audits with actuarial or statistical components for federal agencies.(8) Experience in performing and reporting on audit engagements with actuarial or statistical components for public or private companies.(9) Experience in reviewing and reporting on internal control structures, in connection with attestation engagements.(10) Experience in reviewing and reporting on internal control structures, in connection with performance or financial related audits. (11) Other relevant experience. H4.b.Total Experience of Proposed Personnel. (1) Experience in performing and reporting on attestation engagements with actuarial or statistical components for federal agencies. (2) Experience in performing and reporting on attestation engagements with significant actuarial or statistical components for public or private companies. (3) Experience in applying continuous stratified random sampling in financial applications. (4) Experience in applying random sampling in financial applications. (5) Experience evaluating statistical models. (6) Experience evaluating statistical estimates. (7) Experience in performing and reporting on performance or financial-related audits with actuarial or statistical components for federal agencies.(8) Experience in performing and reporting on audit engagements with actuarial or statistical components for public or private companies.(9) Experience in reviewing and reporting on internal control structures, in connection with attestation engagements.(10) Experience in reviewing and reporting on internal control structures, in connection with performance or financial related audits.(11) Other relevant experience. H4.c. Range of Services to be provided by Specialists. (1) Actuarial consulting specialists. (2) Statisticians. (3) Benefits and compensation consulting specialists. H4.d.Scope of Work Proposed: (1) Adherence to requirements stated in Statement of Work. (2) Completeness of Proposed Objectives in Meeting the overall needs as stated in Statement of Work. (3) Length of time to complete the objectives stated in the proposal. H5.PROPOSAL EVALUATION: Proposals will first be reviewed for content and conformance to proposal preparation instructions. Proposals which are so deficient in these areas as not to warrant further consideration will be rejected and the offeror will be so notified. The initial evaluation of proposals will be based on the offeror's written response to the solicitation. Technical and price will be evaluated in accordance with the criteria in this section H. A determination of competitive range will be made and those offerors excluded from the competitive range will be so notified. H6. SUBMISSION OF PROPOSALS: Proposals must include the following: a. Two signed copies of your proposal. b. Signed and completed Offerors Representations and Certifications- Commercial Items (Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) 52.212-3). c. Offerors must supply federal tax identification number and a Dun and Bradstreet (DUNS) number. d. Price proposal. The price shall be a firm fixed price. e. Technical proposal shall be submitted in five copies, per content requirements of Sections G and F and address each evaluation factor in your proposal. f. Past Performance information. Include three references with phone numbers, addresses and points of contact. g. Offerors must submit a positive statement that they have obtained and reviewed the ?Summary and Documentation? for the 52nd annual FI determination and transfer, per instructions in section A5. h. Offeror certifies that the offered price shall be valid for 60 days after contract award. H7.FINAL PROPOSAL REVISIONS: When used, written and/or oral discussions may be conducted with those offerors determined to be in the competitive range. Offerors, thus selected, shall be given an opportunity to submit a final proposal revision. A common cut-off date shall be established for the receipt of final proposal revisions and for cessation of all competitive discussions. H8.FINAL EVALUATION AND SELECTION: Final Evaluation and Contractor selection shall be made in accordance with the provisions of this section (H) and shall be based on the offeror's final proposal revision, if required. I. CONTRACT CLAUSES. The following FAR clauses are incorporated by reference: 52.212-2, Evaluation-Commercial Items; 52.212-4, Contract Terms and Conditions; 52.212-5, Contract Terms and Conditions Required to Implement Statutes or Executive Orders- Commercial Items. O. SUBMISSION OF PROPOSALS. Response time for submission of proposals is Wednesday, September 7, 2005 at noon (CST). Mark outside of the envelope ?RFP RRB05R005 Enclosed.? Address package to: U.S. Railroad Retirement Board, Acquisition Management, 844 N. Rush St., Chicago, IL 60611-2092. The RRB will not accept proposals submitted by facsimile. Email proposals are not permitted. Any further questions regarding this solicitation must be submitted in writing on company letterhead and e-mailed to elizabeth.kelly@rrb.gov or faxed to 312/751-4923, Attn: Elizabeth Kelly by August 25, 2005. The RRB will not send an acknowledgement of any firm?s submission. Any amendment to the solicitation will be posted on Fed Biz Opps.
- Place of Performance
- Address: 844 N. Rush St., Chicago, IL 60611
- Zip Code: 60611-2092
- Country: U.S.A.
- Zip Code: 60611-2092
- Record
- SN00876404-W 20050824/050822212640 (fbodaily.com)
- Source
-
FedBizOpps.gov Link to This Notice
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