SOLICITATION NOTICE
R--R -- VADEX Project
- Notice Date
- 8/30/2005
- Notice Type
- Solicitation Notice
- Contracting Office
- Attn: Department of Veterans Affairs, Acquisition Operations Service, (049A3), 810 Vermont Avenue, N.W., Washington, District Of Columbia 20420
- ZIP Code
- 20420
- Solicitation Number
- 101-75-05
- Response Due
- 9/7/2005
- Archive Date
- 10/7/2005
- Small Business Set-Aside
- Total Small Business
- Description
- This is a combined synopsis/solicitation (RFQ 101-75-05) for commercial items prepared in accordance with the format in FAR Subpart 12.6, as supplemented with additional information included in this notice. Note: This RFQ is issued prior to comments from Legal/Technical review and is subject to any subsequent changes this review may recommend. The announcement constitutes the only solicitation; responses reflecting availability of the service as described are requested in the form of a proposal. A separate written solicitation will not be issued. This solicitation incorporates provisions and clauses that are in effect through Federal Acquisition Circular 01-09. The NAICS Classification code is 519120. The department of Veterans Affairs requires contractual services to maintain electronic research tools, indexing (VADEX), Citator (Regulatory History, attachment verification, maintaining infobases for use in Folio 3.1 format, consulting and programming support and secure at a storage for data and products. The Statement of Work is attached (attachment 1). The following provisions are incorporated by reference: 52.212-1, Instructions to Offerors?Commercial Items, the following instructions are added as an addendum to this clause: Submit offers in two separate volumes as follows: Volume I, Technical Proposal?Include all technical information required for evaluation, excluding any reference to cost/price. Divide the technical volume into the following areas, Technical Approach Area, Past Performance, and Qualifications/experience of staffing proposed. Demonstrate compliance with all minimum technical requirements. Past performance ? include a minimum of 3 points of reference for customers of comparable size, and whose requirements are similar in nature. Volume II, Price Proposal. Pricing should be provided in a fully loaded per action rate for the basic requirement of upgrading and indexing the system, fully loaded per hour rate using a target of 500 hours should be used for the programming support. The period of performance is 1 year. In accordance with FAR 52.212-2, Evaluation?Commercial Items, 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: (1) Understanding of the statement of work requirements, as demonstrated in the Technical Proposal; (2) Past Performance and (3) Price. These factors are stated in their descending orders of importance. The requirement of FAR 52-212-3, Offeror Representations and Certifications?Commercial Items and 52-212-4, Contract Terms and Conditions?Commercial Items and 52.212-5, Contract Terms and Conditions Required to Implement Statutes or Executive Orders? Commercial Items must be submitted with offer. A copy of the Representations and Certifications is available at http://www.arnet.gov/far/loadmainre.html. The following FAR Clauses under FAR 52.212-5 are applicable to this acquisition: 52.203-6, 52.219-8, 52.222-21, 52.222-26, 52.222-35, 52.222-36, 52.222-37, and 52.232-33. Additionally, FAR clauses, 52.217-9 (inserts to read ?period of performance? ?30 days? and ?18 months?), 52.217-5, and 52.217-8 (insert to read ?within the contract performance period?) are included. NOTICE TO OFFERORS?SOLICITATION OMBUDSMAN PROGRAM. It is the policy of the Dept of Veterans Affairs to issue solicitations and make contract awards in a fair and timely manner. To further this policy, the Secretary has created the position of Solicitation Ombudsman who is empowered to investigate issues raised by prospective offerors and resolve them, where possible, without expensive and time-consuming litigation. Potential offerors who believe that a Veterans Affairs solicitation is unfair or otherwise defective should first direct their concerns to the cognizant contracting officer. If the contracting officer is unable to satisfy the concerns, the offeror should then contract the Veteran?s Affairs Solicitation Ombudsman at the address below: Dept of Veteran?s Affairs (049A)810 Vermont, NW;Washington, DC 20240-0001;Telephone (202) 273-7009Offers are due September 7, 2005, 2005, 3:00 p.m. to: Dept of Veteran?s Affairs (049A3F), 810 Vermont, NW, Washington, DC 20240-0001, Attn: Ernestine S. Robinson. Ms. Christopher Burroughs is the Contract Officer for this project, however, for information regarding this solicitation, please call Ms. Robinson at (202) 273-7009 or e-mail at vacorobine1@mail.va.gov. Performance Work Statement General Information This Contract is to provide 1) subject indexing of materials related to the adjudication of claims; 2) regulatory history and Citator tracing by subject matter for portions of Title 38 CFR through various earlier VA regulations and documents; 3) attachment verification and quality check on all Board of Veterans? Appeals (BVA) decisions, including verifying and associating all Vacated, Corrected and Reconsidered decisions with the earlier version, scanning unavailable decisions, preparing an electronic file of unavailable decisions, transmitting the electronic file, and providing an edit list of problems for correction by BVA; 4) maintain Infobases in a format that can be uploaded into Folio version 3.1; 5) Consulting and Programming support to be defined by task orders; and 6) secure storage of data in electronic and microform formats. The BVA Research Center contains a large archive of current and historical administrative materials. These materials are not adequately retrieved by the usual bibliographic identification. Basically it is of little use to know that there are 63 binders of VA forms when you need to obtain only one specific form. VADEX allows you to identify and locate such specific record information. Invoices will be submitted quarterly and will be paid in accordance with the Prompt Payment Act. Progress meetings may be held, usually quarterly. Efforts will be made to resolve all matters by e-mail or phone before having a meeting. Contractor is not expected to work in the BVA facility but access is provided when necessary to complete the work. Please identify the skills of key personnel and include the percentage of time those key personnel will be available for this Contract. Definitions BVA ? Board of Veterans? Appeals CO ? Contracting Officer COR ? Contracting Officer?s Representative VA ? Department of Veterans Affairs VACOLS ? Veterans Appeals Control and Locator System Government Furnished Property and Services The Government will provide containers suitable for the transportation of documents and computer disks or tapes. The Government will provide access to VACOLS, Computer Assisted Legal Research, and appropriate research facilities. VACOLS access will be on the VA Virtual Private Network. Contractor Furnished Property and Services Contractor will provide all computers and related equipment to access the databases provided and to prepare the required files. Contractor will provide pickup and delivery of physical materials. Contractor will provide e-mail addresses, telephone and fax numbers. Contractor will provide Broadband Access to the Internet. Contactor personnel who have access to the VA computer systems will be required to complete annual Cyber Security training, which will take approximately one hour. Contractor personnel who have access to decisions in any format must complete annual Privacy Awareness training, which will take approximately one hour. Training will be available online, by videotape or at the BVA offices, as is most convenient to the Contractor personnel. Contractor personnel must provide signed certification of completion to the CO during each year of the contract. Contractor must properly dispose of unredacted documents, using shredder or other document destruction device. Contractor will provide personnel capable of indexing using a controlled vocabulary in English; maintaining a controlled vocabulary in English; researching and documenting the history of a specific subject regulated by the VA in English; Contractor personnel who have access to VA computer systems will be the subject of a background investigation and must receive a favorable adjudication from the VA Office of Security and Law Enforcement prior to contract performance. The Contractor(s) shall be responsible for their connectivity to the VA computer network and ensure that any connected computer equipment meets VA standards relating to security. The BVA reserves the right to make additional copies, or portions thereof, as it deems necessary and the Contractor shall have no claim for additional copies. Specific Tasks Item 1 ? Indexing (VADEX): Provide infobase and print index to materials relevant to BVA adjudication; vocabulary control (specific subject matter); quarterly electronic updates; three copies of annual print edition of the controlled vocabulary, including all references, reciprocals, and logical categories; advance sheets showing the indexing completed for each document; sequentially numbered documents which are determined by the Research Center staff to be not relevant to adjudication are recorded in an Adjunct file to assure that all documents have been reviewed; quarterly listing of missing numbers for each series of sequentially numbered documents. Expired items are deleted from the database. Superseded items are indexed under their current reference. Item 2 ? Citator (Regulatory History): Provide quarterly electronic updates to infobase, microfiche and three copies of annual print Citator. A special Project under Item 5 may involving providing a searchable electronic file hotlinked to image file, text file or website. . Also, as a special project under Item 5, temporarily maintain a complete paper file of any recreated regulatory history to be used to create an electronic legislative history. Annual print Citator provides a shelf list for the microfiche regulatory histories. When preparing a regulatory history, it is preferred to use the image of the original document rather than a retyped or computer generated copy. However, if the image of the original document is unavailable or not of a quality which will reproduce effectively, a retyped or computer generated copy may be substituted. Microfiche is currently created using updatable fiche jackets. This is a continuous editing process sometimes resulting in the total revision of a recently completed history. The current contractor maintains the updatable fiche jackets. Any proposal should describe how the microfiche will be updated and how the masters will be maintained. The Research Center staff may develop some regulatory histories. Those regulatory histories will be provided to Contractor for editing. Since the specific question posted to the Research Center will have particular dates involved, it may be necessary for the Contractor to complete the tracing. Regulations are identified for tracing by three separate mechanisms: (1) when a regulation is amended; (2) when the Research Center staff identifies a regulation as requiring an update; and (3) when there is an anticipated need for an untraced section to be traced. The majority of regulations are identified as a result of an amendment made in the Federal Register. Workload for Item 2 is expected to be high due to the Department of Veterans Affairs? (VA?s) Regulation Rewrite project. Item 3 ? Attachment Verification: Work includes providing an error list, electronic files for uploading, machine-readable decisions for archiving, and weekly pickup and delivery of physical documents in paper or electronic format. Weekly turn around of materials is required, with no more than three deliveries during the year being delayed. The purpose of this item is to have a more accurate database of BVA decisions. The contractor will be provided with a paper copy of the dispatched decision and access to the archived decision in VACOLS. The contractor will perform an integrity check for purposes of verifying that the paper decision matches both the archived decision and the VACOLS record in the following respects: 1. in text, 2. the listed Regional Office, 3. the listed service dates and file numbers, and 4. the listed representation, if any. The decision will be reviewed for internal errors such as whether ?Conclusions of Law? section matches the ?Issue?, ?Introduction,? and ?Findings of Fact? sections of decisions. The decision also will be reviewed to determine whether any Personal Identifiers, as defined by the Privacy Act, are included. The contractor will generate a weekly error report listing problems found that BVA personnel will then use to make corrections to the archived decisions When a BVA decision must be scanned by the contractor for purposes of attaching to VACOLS, certain edit checks are run against the scanned text, prior to transmitting it. The scanned decisions are batched and transferred electronically in a flat file format. Scanned decisions will be reviewed for Personal Identifiers, which will be redacted. Any discrepancies are to be referred to BVA for resolution. Vacated, Reconsidered and Corrected Decisions constitute approximately 2 percent of decisions issued by the BVA. These items are associated with the earlier decision in the archive. This allows users of the archive to be aware of the later decision when reviewing the earlier one. Workload varies due to priorities and changes in the law. During the first 11 months of calendar 2004, 30,000 decisions were reviewed. Approximately 2 percent required scanning or other special processing. The Workload for Item 3 depends upon the number of decisions issued by the BVA. The following chart shows the number of Appeals Decided for each of the last five years, as well as projections for the next two years. Fiscal Year FY2000 FY2001 FY2002 FY2003 FY2004 FY2005 FY2006 Appeals Decided 34,038 31,557 17,231 31,397 38,371 33,126* 32,224* *Projected Item 4 ? Maintain Infobases for Use in Folio 3.1 Format: Infobases of Chairman?s Memorandums, GC Precedential Opinions, CAVC Precedent Decisions, Research Center Shelflist, and Veteran?s Benefit Law Index. Datafiles must be in a format which can be imported into Folio 3.1. Datafiles are to be updated quarterly, unless there have been no changes to a particular database in the last quarter. The materials are provided by e-mail or in the weekly pick-up. The databases are currently maintained in Access. Item 5 ? Consulting and Programming Support ? Task Orders: Task Orders will be issued for special projects. Examples of projects that might be completed are migrating a database to new software, creating an electronic regulatory history using the master data, or training BVA Staff in the use of the products. Item 6 ? Secure Data Storage for Data and Products: Materials will be stored on CD or microform, as appropriate. The specific items involved include VADEX and CITATOR Archive Files, BVA Vocabulary Master Files, Citator microfiche master updatable fiche jackets, master microfiche of Research Center subject files, and Research Center shelflist. Regulatory history materials available in print that may be required for scanning and electronic database conversion will be retained until the work is completed, or for no more than 9 months. Applicable Publications and Forms Technical Exhibits Data Requirements The computer environment for this work is Microsoft Windows 2000 and XP operating systems workstations, along with Oracle 8i database and SQL*Net software for VACOLS tracking system. The programming languages used include: Power Builder 6.5.1; and Folio version 3.1 for access to decisions and research tools databases. Microsoft Word, Excel and Access software are agency standards. Attachments Appendixes Exhibits Sample Pages from various Databases and Information products are included. Item 1 ? VADEX, three samples Sample printout from Computer InfoBase, 3 pages Sample from annual print VADEX, 3 pages Samples from VADEX Vocabularies, 3 pages Item 2 ? Citator, two samples Sample Tree showing Regulatory History for 38 CFR 3.800(b), 2 pages Sample printout from Computer InfoBase, 3 pages Sample from annual print Citator, 2 pages Item 3 ? Materials indexed under Item 3 include privileged information and cannot be released 11 page redacted document included as sample Item 4 ? Infobases, five samples Sample printout from Chairman?s Memos, 1 page Sample printout from GC Precendential Opinions, 1 page Sample printout from CAVC Precedent Decisions, 1 page Sample printout from Research Center Shelflist, 2 pages Sample printout from Veterans Benefit Law Index (Annotated), 2 pages Quality Assurance Surveillance Plan Unless specified otherwise, the Research Center staff will do all quality control checks. Electronic files will be checked by the MIS staff for compatibility and integrity, and by the Research Center staff for content. Item 1 ? Indexing (VADEX): Advance Sheets showing recently completed indexing and requested changes will be reviewed 100 percent. Spot checks will be made with respect to database content and annual print editions. Item 2 ? Citator (Regulatory History): Newly produced microfiche, requested changes, and database compatibility will be reviewed 100 percent. The annual print edition will be spot-checked. An annual review will be completed comparing the contents of the microfiche collection against the annual print edition. Item 3 ? Attachment Verification: Database compatibility and error listing will be reviewed 100 percent. Item 4 ? Maintain Infobases for Use in Folio 3.1 Format: Requested changes, database compatibility, and error listing will be reviewed 100 percent. Database content will be spot-checked. Item 5 ? Consulting and Programming Support ? Task Orders: Requested projects will be tracked in accordance with their requirements. Database compatibility will be checked 100%. Database content will be spot-checked. Item 6 ? Secure Data Storage for Data and Products: Back up data will be recalled for testing no more than once during any year, unless problems are identified that warrant additional recall and testing. Proposal Evaluation Plan Proposals will be evaluated based upon: Technical Approach ? Demonstrated understanding of the PWS and quality of technical approach. Project Management ? Staff expertise in subject matter indexing and regulatory history development (specific expertise in administrative research and developing regulatory histories is preferred); database management with appropriate software; technical accuracy in reviewing documents; ingenuity in technical response to PWS; organization of work; availability of key personnel; and ingenuity of proposal; Corporate Management ? Experience with similar agencies and with similar contracts; and Past Performance ? Timeliness of Delivery, quality of personnel, and perseverance.
- Place of Performance
- Address: Washington, DC
- Zip Code: 20420
- Country: United States
- Zip Code: 20420
- Record
- SN00882481-W 20050901/050830211936 (fbodaily.com)
- Source
-
FedBizOpps.gov Link to This Notice
(may not be valid after Archive Date)
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