Loren Data's SAM Daily™

FBO DAILY ISSUE OF JULY 09, 2011 FBO #3514
SOLICITATION NOTICE

B -- Cook Inlet Beluga Whale Economic Survey - word version

Notice Date

7/7/2011
 

Notice Type

Combined Synopsis/Solicitation
 

NAICS

541690 — Other Scientific and Technical Consulting Services
 

Contracting Office

Department of Commerce, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Western Acquisition Division-Boulder, 325 Broadway - MC3, Boulder, Colorado, 80305-3328, United States
 

ZIP Code

80305-3328
 

Solicitation Number

NFFS7200-11-04854srg
 

Archive Date

7/19/2011
 

Point of Contact

Suzanne A Romberg-Garrett, Phone: 303-497-5110
 

E-Mail Address

suzanne.garrett@noaa.gov
(suzanne.garrett@noaa.gov)
 

Small Business Set-Aside

N/A
 

Description

word version COMBINED SYNOPSIS/SOLICITATION Cook Inlet Beluga Whale Economic Survey (I) This is a combined synopsis/solicitation for commercial items prepared in accordance with the format in FAR Subpart 12.6, as supplemented with additional information included in this notice and in accordance with the simplified acquisition procedures authorized in FAR Part 13. This announcement constitutes the only solicitation; proposals are being requested and a written solicitation will not be issued. (II) This solicitation is issued as a request for quotation (RFQ). Submit written quotes on RFQ Number NFFS7200-11-04854srg. (III) The solicitation document and incorporated provisions and clauses are those in effect through Federal Acquisition Circular 2005-52. (IV) This solicitation is being issued as a Total Small Business Set-Aside. The associated NAICS code is 541690. The business size standard is $7.0M. (V) This combined solicitation/synopsis is for purchase of the following commercial services: CLIN 0001 - Cook Inlet Beluga Whale Economic Survey (VI) Description of requirement is as follows: This survey will be for implementing an economic valuation survey to collect information regarding the public's preferences for protection and recovery of the Cook Inlet population of beluga whales. (VII) Period of performance shall be from date of award through September 30, 2012. (VIII) FAR 52.212-1, Instructions to Offerors -- Commercial Items (June 2008), applies to this acquisition. (IX) FAR 52.212-2, Evaluation - Commercial Items (Jan 1999), applies to this acquisition. Offers will be evaluated based on price and the factors set forth in paragraph (a), and award will be made to the firm offering the best value to the Government that meets all the specifications in the Statement of Requirements. Paragraph (a) is hereby completed as follows: Evaluation will be based on 1) Ability to meet the requirements on the specified schedule and 2) Price. The Government intends to award a firm-fixed price purchase order on an all or none basis for all research. (X) The offeror must submit a completed copy of the provision at FAR 52.212-3, Offeror Representations and Certifications - Commercial Items (Mar 2011), with its quote. The offeror shall complete the annual representations and certifications electronically at http://orca.bpn.gov. (XI) The clause at FAR 52.212-4, Contract Terms and Conditions - Commercial Items (June 2010) applies to this acquisition. (XII) The clause at FAR 52.212-5, Contract Terms and Conditions Required to Implement Statutes or Executive Orders - Commercial Items (APR 2011) applies to this acquisition. The following clauses under subparagraph (b) apply: (4) 52.204-10, Reporting Executive Compensation and First-Tier Subcontract Awards (Jul 2010) (Pub. L. 109-282) (31 U.S.C. 6101 note). (20) 52.219-28, Post Award Small Business Program Rerepresentation (Apr 2009) (15 U.S.C. 632(a)(2)). (23) 52.222-3, Convict Labor (June 2003) (E.O. 11755). (24) 52.222-19, Child Labor-Cooperation with Authorities and Remedies (July 2010) (E.O. 13126). (25) 52.222-21, Prohibition of Segregated Facilities (Feb 1999). (26) 52.222-26, Equal Opportunity (Mar 2007) (E.O. 11246). (27) 52.222-35, Equal Opportunity for Veterans (Sep 2010)(38 U.S.C. 4212). (28) 52.222-36, Affirmative Action for Workers with Disabilities (Oct 2010) (29 U.S.C. 793). (37)(i) 52.225-3, Buy American Act-Free Trade Agreements-Israeli Trade Act (June 2009) (41 U.S.C. 10a-10d, 19 U.S.C. 3301 note, 19 U.S.C. 2112 note, 19 U.S.C. 3805 note, Pub. L. 108-77, 108-78, 108-286, 108-302, 109-53, 109-169, 109-283, and 110-138). (39) 52.225-13, Restrictions on Certain Foreign Purchases (June 2008) (E.O.'s, proclamations, and statutes administered by the Office of Foreign Assets Control of the Department of the Treasury) (42) 52.232-33, Payment by Electronic Funds Transfer-Central Contractor Registration (Oct 2003) (31 U.S.C. 3332). (XIII) The following clauses are also applicable to this acquisition: 52.252-1 Solicitation Provisions Incorporated by Reference (Feb 1998) 52.252-2 Clauses Incorporated By Reference (Feb 1998), This contract incorporates one or more clauses by reference, with the same force and effect as if they were given in full text. Upon request, the Contracting Officer will make their full text available. Also, the full text of a clause may be accessed electronically at this address: https://www.acquisition.gov/far/index.html (End of Clause) The following additional FAR terms and conditions apply: 52.204-9, Personal Identity Verification of Contractor Personnel. (Jan 2011) 52.214-34, Submission of Offers in the English Language (Apr 1991) 52.214-35, Submission of Offer in U.S. Currency (Apr 1991) 52.217-8, Option to Extend Services (Nov 1999) 52.217-9, Option to Extend the Term of the Contract (Mar 2000) 52.232-19, Availability of Funds for the Next Fiscal Year (Apr 1984) 52.242-15, Stop-Work Order (AUG 1989) Department of Commerce Clauses: 1352.201-70, Contracting Officer's Authority (Apr. 2010). The Contracting Officer is the only person authorized to make or approve any changes in any of the requirements of this contract, and, notwithstanding any provisions contained elsewhere in this contract, the said authority remains solely in the Contracting Officer. In the event the contractor makes any changes at the direction of any person other than the Contracting Officer, the change will be considered to have been made without authority and no adjustment will be made in the contract terms and conditions, including price. (XIV) Defense Priorities and Allocations System (DPAS) and assigned rating do not apply. (XV) Quotes are required to be received in the contracting office no later than 4:30 P.M. Mountain Standard Time on July 18, 2011. All quotes must be faxed or emailed to the attention of Suzanne Romberg-Garrett either through email Suzanne.Garrett@NOAA.gov or fax number which is (303) 497-7719. (XVI) Any questions or inquiries regarding this solicitation should be directed to Suzanne Romberg-Garrett through email Suzanne.Garrett@NOAA.gov or faxed at 303-497-7719 no later than 4:30 p.m. MST, July 12, 2011. Statement of Requirements: Cook Inlet Beluga Whale Economic Survey Requisition No.: NFFS7200-11-04854 The following describes the requirements for services sought from a contractor/provider to support research being conducted at Alaska Fisheries Science Center (AFSC). The contractor will assist researchers at AFSC to implement a survey research project that collects information for use in estimating the economic value of providing additional protection to the Cook Inlet beluga whale, a distinct population segment of beluga whales found in the Cook Inlet of Alaska that is listed as endangered under the Endangered Species Act. AFSC has developed and tested the survey and recently completed a formal pretest implementation. Following U.S. Office of Management and Budget (OMB) approval under the Paperwork Reduction Act (PRA), which is currently being sought, AFSC wishes to implement the full survey. The results of the full survey implementation will provide the data necessary for estimating the public's willingness to pay for various levels and types of protection of Cook Inlet beluga whales using stated preference choice econometric modeling techniques. To this end, the contractor will be responsible for (a) modifying an on-line survey version that has been completed and adapted from the AFSC mail questionnaire to make it operational; (b) administering the full implementation of the mail and on-line versions of the survey; (c) entering and cleaning the data; and (d) writing a summary report. The project will be managed by economists at AFSC. The contractor's responsibility will include printing questionnaires, envelopes, cover letters, and all other supporting materials associated with survey administration; developing/programming, internally testing, maintaining, hosting, and supporting a secure on-line survey option; administering the mail-telephone-internet survey; entering survey data; delivering data; and writing a report. The project is composed of two tasks: (1) the full mail survey implementation and (2) the programming/development/implementation of the web survey. Task 1 Requirements: Mail Survey Implementation The contractor will administer the mail survey implementation. Upon OMB approval, which is currently being sought, the implementation is expected to occur in January-June, 2012. The start date for this task may be postponed due to delays in getting OMB approval to conduct the data collection. Survey administration steps. The survey implementation is expected to follow a modified Dillman Tailored Design Method approach. Implementation will include an advance letter, an initial mailing, a postcard reminder, a follow-up phone interview, and a second full mailing. All written correspondence except the advance letter will contain information on accessing the web survey.  The advance letter will be sent a few days prior to sending out the initial mailing.  The initial mailing will be sent a few days after the advance letter is sent. Each mailing contains a personalized cover letter, a questionnaire, and a pre-addressed and postage-paid return envelope. This first mailing will be sent by first-class mail and will include a token pre-incentive ($5) to boost participation (provided by contractor).  The postcard reminder will be sent a few days after the initial mailing.  The telephone interview will be conducted 2 to 3 weeks after the postcard mailing. All individuals who have not returned the survey to date will be contacted, provided a valid phone number can be procured via reverse telephone lookup. Contacted respondents will be encouraged to fill out and return the questionnaire. In addition to encouraging individuals to complete the survey and identifying and rectifying delivery problems, the interview will involve asking several attitudinal, behavioral, and socio-demographic questions that will assist in understanding non-response behavior. These phone interviews are expected to last up to 10 minutes.  The second full mailing will be sent following the end of the telephone interview stage to all of the individuals being contacted by the contractor. However, for those individuals for which valid phone numbers may not have been procured by reverse phone lookup services, the second full mailing may occur during the telephone interview stage. Sampling frame. The sample will be drawn from the population of all U.S. households. Sample size. For the full survey, a stratified random sample of approximately 1,000 Alaska households and 2,000 non-Alaska U.S. households will be used. Expected response rates. The final survey should target at least a 60% response rate from the valid sample (i.e., excluding undeliverables). The contractor should make every effort to meet or exceed the 60% targeted overall response rate in the final survey. Survey material specifications. Printing of all survey materials is the responsibility of the contractor. Choice of paper types, colors, and quality are subject to AFSC approval. Questionnaire basics. The questionnaire will be a 16-page booklet style survey, made from four 11"×17" pages double-sided, folded, and stapled on the spine (resulting in a booklet with sixteen 8.5"×11" pages). The paper used for the questionnaire will be high-quality book paper. Each questionnaire will have an individual identification number printed on it that uniquely identifies each respondent. Questionnaire versions. There will be up to 50 survey versions in the full survey. Each version will have a unique set of stated preference choice questions that the respondent will be asked to choose from (see Figure 1 below). The choice alternatives in these choice questions are distinguished by the differing attribute levels contained in tables describing each alternative. AFSC will provide the contractor with a table that defines the attribute levels associated with each survey version. The contractor will randomly assign each respondent to one of the versions. In all follow-up mailings and on-line, the respondent will receive the same survey version. Thus, the contractor will need to track which version each respondent receives. AFSC will provide the contractor with an electronic copy of the base survey (not every version) in Microsoft Word. The contractor is responsible for survey formatting. Figure 1. Example of a stated preference choice experiment question from the survey Letters. The advance letter and survey cover letters will have the contractor's address displayed. These letters will be individualized by using the respondent's name, dated for the date it will be sent, and printed on letterhead using high-quality bond paper. The advance letter will be printed on NOAA letterhead provided to the contractor by AFSC in electronic form (MS Word document). All correspondence should include a toll-free number for the contractor that the respondent can use for questions or comments. Letters will include a signature in contrasting ink (e.g., blue ink signature, black letter print). Envelopes. Envelopes should be printed with "Address Correction Requested". The return envelopes will be 9"×12" Business Reply Mail envelopes. All envelopes will be designed by the contractor and subject to AFSC approval. Name and address verification. The contractor will verify for accuracy the names and addresses in the sample using a national address database. Follow-up telephone interview. If no response is received after the mailing of the postcard reminder, respondents will be contacted by telephone and encouraged to complete and return the survey. Respondent will be asked some classification questions that can be used to analyze non-response bias (e.g., income, age, gender, etc.). Each respondent should be called up to 10 times before phone attempts are discontinued. The contractor will obtain the respondent's phone number using a phone lookup service. AFSC will provide the contractor with a preliminary telephone script for use in the phone interview that identifies the set of questions to be asked. From this script, the contractor will develop the final script for actual use. Handling of undelivered questionnaires. Efforts will be made to correct mailing addresses of undelivered surveys. Address corrections will be allowed up to the date of the second mailing. On the date of the second mailing, all corrected addresses that have been received will be mailed a new advance letter, and then all of the aforementioned survey protocols will be followed. Handling respondent inquiries. The contractor shall supply a toll-free number on each of the mailings. The contractor is responsible for handling respondent inquiries and questions. The AFSC project manager will work with the contractor to develop answers to inquiries or questions. The contractor shall inform the AFSC project manager about the nature and number of inquiries each week during the survey process. Data entry. Data entry of the returned questionnaires will follow a two-tiered approach to ensure accuracy of results. Once received, a completed questionnaire will be logged in using the ID number, and run through a scanner to create a pdf of the questionnaire. Data will then be keypunched and verified. Each data element must be checked for data errors, reasonableness in falling within an acceptable range, and logic in relation to other data elements. AFSC will work with the contractor to develop these data checks. A logical system of data entry should be used that will also be used for the identification of non-responses to questions and questions that the respondent is asked to skip because they are not applicable. Examination of early returns. The contractor will examine early returns from the first mailing for issues that can be addressed in the second mailing (e.g., add a clarification to the cover letter of the second mailing). Progress reports during implementation. The contractor will provide a weekly progress report to AFSC by e-mail on a specified day of the week (as mutually agreed upon) while the full survey is in progress. The report shall contain the status of the survey, response rates, and discuss any problems or issues associated with the survey. The contractor will also send a list of the respondent questions or comments, organized by respondent identification number. Final data sets. The contractor shall supply the data in a mutually agreed upon format no later than 6 weeks after the completion of the final mailing in the full survey. The data file will include all coded responses to the questionnaire questions, plus respondent-specific data related to which mailings were sent, when the completed survey was received, whether attempts were made to contact the individual by phone, the date and disposition of each phone attempt (busy, no answer, voice mail or answering machine, answered but not home, answered but refused, etc.), and responses to the phone interview. Additional fields specific to the web survey will also be in the data file. Codebook. Documentation of the transferred data file shall include, but is not necessarily limited to, the following: a. variable name b. position c. description d. length e. alpha-numeric description f. variable value description Scanning completed mail questionnaires. The contractor shall deliver all of the completed paper questionnaires to AFSC from the full implementation. The questionnaires should be sorted by the respondents' identification number. The questionnaires will be delivered electronically as individual indexed (sorted by sample identification number) pdfs and in hardcopy. Report. The contractor shall also supply a final report no later than 8 weeks after the mailing of the final survey to the group of respondents for whom a change or forwarding address was received. The final report should contain the following: a. List and describe the survey procedures that were implemented. b. Attempted number of mail surveys, total, by state of residence, and by survey version. Undeliverables by survey version. c. An analysis of response rates by survey version, by state of residence, and in total. d. Response rate to each mailing and by week (by survey version and in total). e. A full enumeration of the telephone protocols and implementation. f. Number of attempted and successful phone contacts and average number of attempts per successful contact. Full final dispositions of telephone contacts. g. Number of additional mailings (and completes) resulting from the phone contact. h. Other analysis or descriptive statistics that the contractor believes to be useful to easily identify problems with the data or that will assist in identifying the success of the survey. AFSC will be responsible for the statistical/econometric analysis of the survey responses. Task 2 Requirements: Web-based Survey Version The contractor will program/modify an existing web-based version of the survey instrument to make it operational for use with the mail survey implementation (Task 1). This web version of the survey will provide the individuals who are contacted through the mail survey implementation with an on-line alternative for completing and submitting the survey. As such, this task must be completed before survey implementation. Programming: All programming is the responsibility of the contractor. The contractor will devise a password-protected individual-specific manner for respondents to access a customized survey version (that matches the specific questionnaire version they received in the mail). This username-password combination will be mailed to respondents by mail (in all mail correspondence during survey implementation). The web-based survey will be programmed using materials provided by AFSC from an earlier development effort and from the paper-version of the survey provided by AFSC. These materials will be used as a template to make a functional website and on-line survey. The exact formatting and layout of web pages will need to be adjusted to the on-line format to make it functional, attractive, and easy to use. These layout and formatting changes are subject to AFSC approval. The web survey should allow respondents to save work and logout during multiple sessions, preserving the completed responses and displaying the same version of the survey on each subsequent login session. The contractor should program the survey to allow users to be able to navigate back through the survey, but only up to the furthest point in the survey they have completed. For a few questions, data entry rules should be programmed to preclude respondents from inputting incorrect values (e.g., negative values for birth year and household sizes). Testing. The web survey must be visually consistent and fully functional across different common web browsers and operating systems. It is expected that the contractor will thoroughly test the survey for compatibility across platforms, connection speeds, browsers, etc. Additional tests are expected to occur to ensure all hyperlinks, radio buttons, data objects, navigational tools and flow, etc., as well as the underlying database, are operating correctly. Additional pages in web survey. It is likely that several additional pages will be added to the web survey, relative to the mail survey, to ensure respondents understand and answer the stated preference choice experiment (conjoint analysis) questions correctly. This may entail adding in several example questions. In addition, error message pages will be required to help respondents through the survey and troubleshoot issues that may arise. Paradata capture: The contractor will build the survey to provide several types of information on the survey experience: start date/times, end date/times, durations of page views, survey version ID, subversion ID, etc. File Deliverables. The contractor will deliver to AFSC copies of all files associated with the web survey, including the files underlying the webpages, database files, etc. List of deliverables 1. On-line web survey version materials 2. Samples of all mail survey materials (envelopes, survey versions, letters) 3. Pdfs of scanned surveys 4. Full survey data files and codebooks (for phone, mail, web surveys) 5. Report
 

Web Link

FBO.gov Permalink
(https://www.fbo.gov/spg/DOC/NOAA/MASC/NFFS7200-11-04854srg/listing.html)
 

Place of Performance

Address: NOAA/NMFS 7600 SAND POINT WAY NE, SEATTLE, Washington, 98115-6349, United States

Zip Code: 98115-6349
 

Record

SN02492504-W 20110709/110707235644-b4743595b5ab584488a5cddac39832a3 (fbodaily.com)
 

Source

FedBizOpps Link to This Notice
(may not be valid after Archive Date)

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