The two major changes from above were the addition of the “Dollar value” and “Retention” elements. For the “Dollar value” element, offerors will be evaluated based on the dollar value of the QP used in submission. Since the required dollar value is $2 million, each QP must exceed that amount, and additional points will be awarded with the maximum per QP being three points:
- Offeror will receive 3 points if the total contract value is greater than $50 million
- Offeror will receive 2 points if the total contract value is between $25 million and $50 million
- Offeror will receive 1 point if the total contract value is less than $25 million
For the “Retention” element of Volume II, offerors will be evaluated on the retention rate of each QP. That rate will be calculated by the number of employees at the end of the contract minus the number of new hires made within the period of performance divided by the number of employees proposed at the start of that period, multiplied by 100. This formula is simplified below:
(# of employees at end of contract - # employees hired) / (# of employees proposed x 100)
The scoring for this new Retention element is as follows:
- Offeror will receive 10 points per QP that meets a 100% retention rate
- Offeror will receive 7 points per QP that meets a 90-99% retention rate
- Offeror will receive 4 points per QP that meets an 80-89% retention rate
- Offeror will receive 2 points per QP that meets a 70-79% retention rate
- Offeror will receive 1 point per QP that meets a 60-69% retention rate
- Offeror will receive 0 points per QP that meets a 59% or below retention rate
What do we still not know?
Teaming or meaningful relationship commitment letters?
Noticeably absent from the current draft RFP—or from the previously drafted RFPs—is any mention of the possibility of contractor teaming arrangements, including joint ventures, or the sharing of resources from the same corporate structure via a meaningful relationship commitment letter. Within the Dec. 13 industry feedback form, the Army alluded to the possibility of neither being included in MAPS—under the reasoning that doing so would help promote competition. Specifically, the Army is looking for industry’s feedback on possibly limiting the number of proposals submitted to one for each domain per company, to include parent companies, affiliates and subsidiaries. Additionally, the government is considering excluding joint ventures all together. This would be a substantial departure from what has been done on previous governmentwide acquisition contracts (GWACs) and multiple award contracts (MACs).
Third-party audited systems?
MAPS requires large businesses to have government approved systems to pass the gate criteria and also allows offerors to gain additional scoring credits by proving they have government-approved contractor business systems referenced in the scorecard. The updated draft RFP stresses the need for an official letter or audit report from the Defense Contract Audit Agency (DCAA), Defense Contract Management Agency (DCMA), or any Cognizant Federal Agency (CFA) that verifies the approval and acceptability of the applicable system or rate. It remains to be seen if third-party certified public accountant (CPA) audits of contractor business systems will be allowed for gate criteria or point scoring purposes, most recently observed on Alliant 3.
How can Baker Tilly help?
As we inch closer to the solicitation being released, many companies are working diligently to prepare qualified, high-scoring proposals. Timely, accurate and responsive proposals will be critical to moving through the phased evaluation process set forth by the Army in the RFP.
Baker Tilly stands ready to assist in the following areas:
- Scorecard/RFP readiness
- Proposal support and preparation
- Proposal compliance assessment
- Third party review/validation of RFP specified business systems
Baker Tilly is familiar with the self-scoring methodology employed for complex GWAC vehicles like Alliant 3, HCaTS, ASTRO, OASIS+, Polaris and 8(a) STARS III. These types of acquisitions place maximum burden on the offeror to prove that they have the requisite experience and capabilities to meet government requirements.
Baker Tilly has assisted leading government contractors through the relevant experience review process, facilitating the successful selection of the right combination of projects to achieve an organization’s maximum score. Baker Tilly has also advised during the pre-proposal stage on teaming and partnering arrangements should it appear an offeror’s ability to achieve a successful award is in doubt. Whether an offeror is seeking support in making a bid/no-bid decision or would like assistance with ‘soup-to-nuts’ proposal preparation, we offer tailor-made assistance to address your unique needs.
