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California2012

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Everything posted by California2012

  1. Actually I very much appreciate their feedback. This is why these forums exist - so we can leverage our collective experiences and knowledge and help one another. It's not like lawyers have all the right answers either. It's up to me as the OP to decide whether and how to take the feedback.
  2. Hi Joel - thank you. The Contracting Officer would not answer that question. Yes, there is an org chart required to be submitted with the RFP as part of the technical proposal.
  3. We submitted a bid to an RFP in September 2019. Our bid was valid for 90 days per the solicitation. They then wrote back asking for a 45 day extension, to which we agreed. That 45-day window is almost up, and they've yet to award. They've now come back asking for another 30 day extension. I therefore have several questions please: Since by the time of award (in mid March), almost 6 months would have passed since the bid submission date, I may have shifted some resources to other projects that have opened up to me. In other words, I had planned our resources for the project to start by Jan at the latest. Now, it looks like it may start by late March at the earliest, assuming they don't come back asking for a third extension. My questions are: (1) If we agree to the extension, and assuming we are awarded the contract but I cannot remobilize my resources to meet the NTP quickly enough, can I decline the award without repercussions? (2) If we decline the extension, can we still ask for feedback on our proposal, particularly the technical part where we feel we could use the feedback to help us in refining future proposals? I've reviewed the FARs and all and honestly can't find a conclusive answer on what happens if you're rewarded a contract (after several extension requests) but choose not to accept it. Any guidance appreciated.
  4. This is for an upcoming contract that is still in the bidding stage. We need to arrive at an estimate for the coefficient, and that needs to include the items under the "Adjustment Factors" heading in the file attached. You will notice that it says the Adjustment Factor (ie coefficient) needs to include "project management and project supervision." However, a few pages later in that same UPB document, the very first section contains monthly wage rates for a long list of roles. So for instance, it says the monthly wage rate for a "Contract Administrator" is $2,834. Now I know that we'd want to have a Contract Admin on the project team from day 1 all the way to the end of the contract. The question then becomes which of the following would we be allowed to do: (1) If there is more than one task order outstanding during any given month, can we direct charge this person's wage x coefficient to the task orders (on a pro rata basis), and therefore get paid for that person? OR (2) Are we allowed to direct charge their wage x coefficient to a task order only if the person is 100% dedicated to that particular task order? (ie not splitting their time with other task orders within the same contract) OR (3) Will the client not allow us to direct charge this person at all since they're really part of the "project management" staff?
  5. Great questions, Joel. 1) It is an FFP, unit priced JOC for activities in the UPB. 2) I believe those. 3) No, we are still in the bidding phase. 4) Bonding is supposed to be included in the coefficient you submit in your bid. 5) This is for a future upcoming contract.
  6. Thank you. So it looks like we are CAS covered. So let me lay out an example and I'd appreciate it if you could opine please: The project is an IDIQ job order contract. We plan to staff 1 Planning Engineer for the whole contract, who will be there from Day 1 (even if no task orders have been issued yet). They shall do the planning work for all task orders that get issued during the contract. Now the Unit Price Book does have a rate for a Planning Engineer. The question therefore is, can I charge a Planning Engineer at the (UPB Rate x Coefficient) to the client in one of the task orders, or is it that because the engineer is working on simultaneous task orders (and not dedicated to a specific task order), then I am not allowed to charge for them?
  7. Thank you for taking the time to respond. I appreciate it. This is less of a question of how I treat these costs internally (for my own accounting purposes) and more of a question of what will the client's contracting officer allow us to charge them. It's important to know that because if I can charge them the monthly rate of a superintendent, for which there is a unit rate in the UPB, then it means when I'm estimating my bid price, I don't have to account for the cost of that person as overhead. As you could imagine, the larger your estimated overhead, the higher your bid price would be, and the lower your odds of winning the bid.
  8. For an IDIQ JOC where the UPB contains a list of roles and their rates (e.g. field superintendent, design engineer, etc), when calculating the overhead cost for the project, how do you distinguish between which staff personnel can be charged to the client and which can't? Asked the question, but client's response was not clear.
  9. Thank you Joel. I've reached out to Gordian and awaiting their response.
  10. Thank you for the FOIA idea. I've filed a request and hoping to get something. Re what I'm looking for, actually I'm just interested in the task catalog itself (some 800 pages), not the coefficient.
  11. "Offerors are required to submit proof of their ability to obtain surety for performance and payment bonds for orders issued under the awarded contract in the form of commercial surety bonds, irrevocable letters of credit, or other acceptable surety under FAR 52.228-15, which is included in this solicitation. The evidence shall prove that the offeror is able to provide bonds for a total of $X million U.S. Dollars coverage for a period of at least 300 calendar days. Performance and payment bonds must be supported by acceptable security as defined in FAR 28.201. A letter of commitment from an acceptable corporate surety as defined in FAR Subpart 28.2 will provide acceptable proof of the offeror’s ability to obtain the required coverage. Only a (U.S.) federally insured financial institution may confirm the offeror’s ability to obtain an ILC. The guidance below should assist the Contractor is determining what it must submit as proof: The evidence of ability to obtain adequate surety must come from an entity that would be acceptable as the surety during contract performance. Accordingly, a letter from a bank that is not (U.S.) federally insured would not be adequate proof of ability to obtain surety without an accompanying letter from a federally insured financial institution that would confirm an ILC issued by the bank that is not federally insured."
  12. We're looking at an RFP for USACE work outside the US and the RFP asks for a letter confirming bonding capacity from a US federally insured bank. Our local banks are willing to provide such letter, but if USACE only accepts letters from US-federally insured banks and we don't have prior relationships with US banks, what can we do?
  13. I'm bidding on an IDIQ JOC and would love some recommendations on the size of project team/staff suitable, the roles, their composition, and their org chart that would be deemed acceptable to the client. Haven't worked with the client before, so don't really know being on the outside. Would appreciate any examples or ideas. Thank you.
  14. Is there anyway of digging up a historical construction task catalog that contains unit prices for various line items? The one I'm looking for is like a 2012-13 version and I know that it was developed by the Gordion Group. Google search yields nothing. Any ideas? Would Gordion provide it if I reached out to them, you think? Thank you
  15. My company is considering bidding on an IDIQ Job Order Contract (JOC) for basic construction/renovation/maintenance works for the first time. The construction catalog which contains unit costs for items is 800 pages long! Ultimately, I believe we are to bid with a single "coefficient" value that would be applied to the unit cost of any items that end up being utilized throughout the contract. Any tips or guidelines on an analysis plan/process, things to watch out for, and the like that would help us analyze this RFP more efficiently and effectively would be appreciated.
  16. It's a federal construction contract. I haven't personally dealt with bonds for federal contracts before, but for other types of contracts, the way it's typically worked is a bank would underwrite the project and principal, and then issue irrevocable bonds to the client (government). These bonds are then at the discretion of the government as to whether they liquidate them or not (in the event of some breach). The bank, to protect their exposure, sometimes asks for all or a portion of these bonds to be collateralized with some form of company asset. The bank also charges fees for issuing these bonds. Now in terms of these RFPs that require 20% perf and 20% payment bonds, I guess what I'm asking is what the contractor's exposure or "capital at risk" would be. So is it fair to say that 40% of the value of the contract is the contractor's exposure (again, in the very worst case scenario that breaches result in liquidation)? If that's the case, it just seems like a lot of capital at risk because you would have to add on top of that the working capital the contractor actually invests in the project. I'm just trying to confirm that I'm understanding this 40% exposure thing correctly.
  17. I'm coming across RFPs where there is a 20% performance (of bid value) and 20% payment bond required in the event you get the contract. Unclear to me how it works mechanically though. Are you supposed to submit bonds on day one essentially for 40% of the contract value? And do they hold on to those for the duration of the contract? And do we know when they release those - whether immediately upon end of the contract or for a longer period thereafter? (40% just seems like a very high number to me...)
  18. I'm coming across several instances of Unit Price Book contracts where the client has modified the prices of only certain items and subitems compared to the prior version of the UPB (say from 3-5 years ago), and in a non-uniform fashion. For instance, let's take something like the construction of manholes. For certain measurements of the manhole, you would see that the client has lowered the price in the new UPB relative to the price in the prior UPB. For other measurements of the manhole (with all other specs remaining the same), the client has raised the price. For example: Manhole 10 ft x 10 ft x 10 ft New Price: $500 each Old Price: $300 each Difference: +66.7% Manhole 25 ft x 25 ft x 25 ft New Price: $800 each Old Price: $1,000 each Difference: -20% Now I do realize one explanation could be that the client simply decided to reset prices closer to "market" rates, but I'd like to see what other plausible scenarios might be causing this. One explanation I've heard is that the client is in a way signaling which items will be included in the actual scope or a job order, and which won't, and that the client signals that by raising the prices of those items which will be worked frequently in the project, and lowering the prices of those which the client believes have a small chance of ever being executed. If the bidders understand this signal, their mark-up or mark-down ratio to the UPB will be more aggressive (ie optically more favorable to the client). I'm curious to see what you guys think about this and what other plausible interpretations for this pattern of adjustments there may be.
  19. So I posted another thread a few days ago on withdrawing a bid prior to award, but thought I should start a separate thread for this topic. So in negotiated bids (RFPs), can any of you please share how this works in practice? So the agency or client reaches out to a bunch of offerors who are in the competitive range and tries to get further price concessions? Is that what's "negotiated"? During this process, can an offeror actually choose to raise their price - let's say the offeror feels like their proposal is strong technically and warrants a price increase... can this be done, or are the only price revisions downwards?
  20. It's a Negotiation Solicitation and my understanding is that as long as the government accepts your offer within 90 days, a contract has formed.
  21. How or where can I find out the applicable law of the solicitation - common law or offer-specific?
  22. Wondering what happens if the government awards a contract but for whatever reason, the contractor no longer wants or can execute the contract. In the event there was no bid bond, can the contractor decline award? If yes, are there government remedies, or would they just re-award to the next-best offeror?
  23. Thanks Joel. We don't do design, usually just DBB, but a technical approach is required either way for any of the contracts we partake in. I'd appreciate it if you could recommend that person you know or the retired cost engineer (assuming they're interested). Thanks a ton!
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