Independent Assessment of Child Safety in Military Housing Units   3

Washington Headquarters Services / Acquisition Directorate (WHS/AD) will be hosting a virtual Industry Day for the upcoming Child Safety Study supporting the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Housing (DASD(H)).

This post is related to the posted sources sought HQ003422R0087 as seen in the attachments.

All participants must pre-register by 18 April 2022 at noon Eastern Time to attend industry day. Please see Attachment 1 for pre-registration. By 6:00 p.m. Eastern Time on 18 April 2022, the Government will provide joining information to all registered attendees.

A draft PWS is attached to this posting as Attachment 2.

Vendors are advised to closely review the attached DoD 365 Anonymous User Guide (Attachment 3) to prepare to join the meeting. The Government will start the industry day promptly at 2:30 p.m. Eastern Time on 19 April 2022, and vendors are advised to allow sufficient time to resolve any technical difficulties. Vendors can also use the telephone bridge information provided to join the industry day.

The industry day will be recorded for the Government's records. However, due to security restrictions, the Government does not warrant that it will be able to provide a copy of the recording in a manner that is accessible to vendors or that it will choose to do so. Vendors are therefore advised to remain attentive throughout the industry day.

Procedures for Industry Day

1. The Contracting Officer will make a brief introduction, and then the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Housing will provide a brief overview of the requirement.

2. In alphabetical order, each vendor will then be afforded an opportunity to provide a brief (no more than five minute) oral overview of their capabilities (no PowerPoint or similar presentations will be permitted). Each vendor is responsible for tracking its own time, the Contracting Officer will end their presentation once this time limit is reached. Because no solicitation has (yet) been issued, any statements made will not be integrated into a vendor's proposal or quote.

3. (a) Each vendor, in alphabetical order, will then be provided with an opportunity to pose questions to the Government representatives present. It is possible that the Government may need to respond to a question at a later date. Any answers will be posted on www.sam.gov. Each attendee will be provided with a link to this posting. Once the question is answered (or deferred), the next vendor will have an opportunity to ask a question.

(b) While the intent of this structure is to afford each vendor an opportunity to ask questions in turn, at the Contracting Officer's discretion, a vendor may be permitted to ask a follow-up question to clarify the Government's response.

(c) Once all vendors have had an opportunity to pose questions, the Government will return to the beginning of the alphabetical list and repeat this procedure, until 5:00 p.m. Eastern Time, or when all questions are answered, whichever occurs first.

(d) Vendors should use the raise hand feature of Teams to indicate their desire to ask a question. Questions must be raised orally to be considered for a response during the Industry Day. Questions entered into the Teams chat window will not be entertained during the Industry Day, but the government may answer these questions in a subsequent post on Sam.gov. If vendors choose to use the chat feature, they are reminded to conduct themselves in a professional manner.

4. The Government respectfully requests that vendors provide a response to the following questions, in writing, by noon on April 18, 2022. While responses are strongly encouraged, a response is not required to attend the industry day. Vendors are advised that the Government may use their responses to any or all of these questions to develop its requirement or may disclose the answers during the industry day. Therefore, vendors should not provide any information that they consider proprietary (or otherwise do not want publicly disclosed).

Questions for Industry Day:

• Provide a rough estimate of cost to complete the effort as it currently stands.
• Is there wide variation in industry standard methods for completing the assessment of child safety?
• Based on your professional experience and judgment, recommend an appropriate methodology to independently assess child safety hazards in DoD's government-owned housing. If recommending that the assessment be based on a representative housing sample, identify the minimum number of DoD-Government housing units and locations that you recommend be included in the sample.
• How would you propose to complete the assessment of housing units in overseas locations given the ongoing COVID pandemic and potential travel restrictions or concerns?
• What child safety hazards do you recommend be included in the assessment?
• What child safety or other facility standards or codes would you use for the assessment? In the absence of accepted or well-defined existing federal, international, or local standard or regulations for child safety hazards, what standards, if any, would you suggest?
• How would you determine which safety codes are essential for the work called for in this requirement as opposed to a comprehensive home inspection?
• How many key personnel and/or technical experts do you believe are necessary to meet this requirement? Please summarize the personnel you believe are necessary to meet this requirement by job title.
• What qualifications or certifications are necessary for the personnel assigned to complete the assessments required by this PWS?
• The PWS requires the independent entity to submit a copy of the final report to the congressional defense committees no later than 31 January 2023. Is this timeline feasible? Why or why not?
• Describe typical evaluation criteria which may be used to discriminate between offerors during the source selection process.
• Does the current PWS (Attachment Two) provide enough information for you to determine an appropriate method for completing the assessment of child safety?
• Are you able to provide a Firm Fixed Price quote for the work detailed in this PWS, including travel? Would you recommend designating travel as a time and material CLIN, with the remainder of the work as firm fixed price? If neither of these options are workable, what pricing structure would you suggest?