The VA Boston Healthcare System intends to negotiate and procure on a sole source basis the services for the Roman Catholic Services. A firm fixed price contract with (4) option years is anticipated and shall be awarded. It is the Government's belief that only the proposed candidate possesses the required background, experience and capabilities to successfully meet this requirement. It is the Government's intention to solicit and negotiate only with this source. Father Claudius Nowinski is clinically certified and endorsed by the Archdiocese for the Military Services, USA in Washington, DC as listed with ECVAC (Endorsers Conference for Veterans Affairs Chaplaincy). This procurement is being conducted under FAR 6.302-1, only one responsible source and no other contractor will satisfy agency requirements. To the best of our knowledge Fr. Claudius Nowinski is the only authorized contractor for this requirement. The NAICS 813110 with a size standard of $7 million dollars. This is a combined synopsis/solicitation for commercial items prepared in accordance with the format in Subpart 12.6, as supplemented with additional information included in this notice. The announcement constitutes the only solicitation; proposals are being requested and written solicitation will not be issued. The solicitation number is VA-241-11-RQ-0474 and is a request for quotation (RFQ). The solicitation document and incorporated provisions and clauses are those in effect through Federal Acquisition Circular 2005-48. Effective January 31, 2011. A list of contract line items number(s), items quantities and units of measure are incorporated in the solicitation. The dates and place of delivery are included on the solicitation as well. Base Period: April 1, 2011 through September 30, 2011 ITEM DESCRIPTION OF QTY UNIT UNIT TOTAL NO. SUPPLIES/SERVICES PRICE 1. ANNUAL CONTRACT FOR SERVICES RENDERED BY A ROMAN CATHOLIC CHAPLAIN IN THE VA BOSTON HEALTHCARE SYSTEM WHEN THE PERMANENT CHAPLAIN IN ON ANNUAL LEAVE, SICK LEAVE, AUTHORIZED ABSENCE, DAYS OFF OR EMERGENCY CALL-BACKS, ETC.THE CONTRACT YEAR BEGINNING 1 APRIL 2011 THROUGH 30 SEPTEMBER -- SUBJECT TO THE AVAILABILITY OF FY11 FUNDS. Option Period One (1): October 1, 2011 through September 30, 2012 ITEM DESCRIPTION OF QTY UNIT UNIT TOTAL NO. SUPPLIES/SERVICES AMOUNT 2. ANNUAL CONTRACT FOR SERVICES RENDERED BY A ROMAN CATHOLIC CHAPLAIN IN THE VA BOSTON HEALTHCARE SYSTEM WHEN THE PERMANENT CHAPLAIN IN ON ANNUAL LEAVE, SICK LEAVE, AUTHORIZED ABSENCE, DAYS OFF OR EMERGENCY CALL-BACKS, ETC. THE CONTRACT YEAR BEGINNING 1 OCTOBER 2011 THROUGH 30 SEPTEMBER 2012 -- SUBJECT TO THE AVAILABILITY OF FY11 AND FY12 FUNDS. Option Period Two (2): October 1, 2012 through September 30, 2013 ITEM DESCRIPTION OF QTY UNIT UNIT TOTAL NO. SUPPLIES/SERVICES AMOUNT 3. ANNUAL CONTRACT FOR SERVICES RENDERED BY A ROMAN CATHOLIC CHAPLAIN IN THE VA BOSTON HEALTHCARE SYSTEM WHEN THE PERMANENT CHAPLAIN IN ON ANNUAL LEAVE, SICK LEAVE, AUTHORIZED ABSENCE, DAYS OFF OR EMERGENCY CALL-BACKS, ETC. THE CONTRACT YEAR BEGINNING 1 OCTOBER 2012 THROUGH 30 SEPTEMBER 2013 -- SUBJECT TO THE AVAILABILITY OF FY11 AND FY12 FUNDS. Option Period Three (3): October 1, 2013 through September 30, 2014 ITEM DESCRIPTION OF QTY UNIT UNIT TOTAL NO. SUPPLIES/SERVICES AMOUNT 4. ANNUAL CONTRACT FOR SERVICES RENDERED BY A ROMAN CATHOLIC CHAPLAIN IN THE VA BOSTON HEALTHCARE SYSTEM WHEN THE PERMANENT CHAPLAIN IN ON ANNUAL LEAVE, SICK LEAVE, AUTHORIZED ABSENCE, DAYS OFF OR EMERGENCY CALL-BACKS, ETC. THE CONTRACT YEAR BEGINNING 1 OCTOBER 2013 THROUGH 30 SEPTEMBER 2014 -- SUBJECT TO THE AVAILABILITY OF FY11 AND FY12 FUNDS. Option Period Four (4): October 1, 2014 through September 30, 2015 ITEM DESCRIPTION OF QTY UNIT UNIT TOTAL NO. SUPPLIES/SERVICES AMOUNT 5. ANNUAL CONTRACT FOR SERVICES RENDERED BY A ROMAN CATHOLIC CHAPLAIN IN THE VA BOSTON HEALTHCARE SYSTEM WHEN THE PERMANENT CHAPLAIN IN ON ANNUAL LEAVE, SICK LEAVE, AUTHORIZED ABSENCE, DAYS OFF OR EMERGENCY CALL-BACKS, ETC. THE CONTRACT YEAR BEGINNING 1 OCTOBER 2014 THROUGH 30 SEPTEMBER 2015 -- SUBJECT TO THE AVAILABILITY OF FY11 AND FY12 FUNDS. GRAND TOTAL: _____________ Statement of Work - Roman Catholic Contract Chaplain Duties and Responsibilities 1. Contractor shall provide pastoral care to all new patients admitted within the previous 24 hours. 2. Contractor shall be responsible to visit all patients of all Roman Catholic denominations as well as those who fall in the categories of Buddhism, Muslim, Native American and those claiming No Preference. This assures that all patients regardless of sect or creed receive at least one visit from a VA Chaplain during their admission. 3. Contractor shall at times work on a Sunday at which time he/she would provide a General Roman Catholic Worship Service for patients at the regularly scheduled time at their respective duty station. 4. As a Contract Chaplain, Contractor may need to work a 4-hour shift two days a week or more as needed, when the fulltime Roman Catholic Chaplain is on Days Off. 5. Contractor shall also be available to cover for the fulltime Roman Catholic Chaplain when he/she is on Annual Leave or other types of leave. 6. Should Contractor receive an emergency call-back outside of normal duty hours he/she will be compensated two hours pay at the negotiated rate. 7. At no time shall the Contractor proselytize to a patient or attempt to persuade or coerce a patient to lean toward a particular belief. Contractor shall dedicate a set amount of time to offer pastoral care to end-of-life patients and their families. The C&A requirements do not apply and a security Accreditation Package is not required. Privacy and security sections - pertinent to Chaplain Services VA HANDBOOK 6500.6 APPENDIX C 1. GENERAL Contractors, contractor personnel, subcontractors, and subcontractor personnel shall be subject to the same Federal laws, regulations, standards, and VA Directives and Handbooks as VA and VA personnel regarding information and information system security. 2. ACCESS TO VA INFORMATION AND VA INFORMATION SYSTEMS a. A contractor/subcontrator shall request logical (technical) or physical access to VA information and VA information systems for their employees, subcontractors, and affiliates only to the extent necessary to perform the services specified in the contract, agreement, or task order. b. All contractors, subcontractors, and third-party servicers and associates working with VA information are subject to the same investigative requirements as those of VA appointees or employees who have access to the same types of information. The level and process of background security investigations for contractors must be in accordance with VA Directive and Handbook 0710, Personnel Suitability and Security Program. The Office for Operations, Security, and Preparedness is responsible for these policies and procedures. c. Contract personnel who require access to national security programs must have a valid security clearance. National Industrial Security Program (NISP) was established by Executive Order 12829 to ensure that cleared U.S. defense industry contract personnel safeguard the classified information in their possession while performing work on contracts, programs, bids, or research and development efforts. The Department of Veterans Affairs does not have a Memorandum of Agreement with Defense Security Service (DSS). Verification of a Security Clearance must be processed through the Special Security Officer located in the Planning and National Security Service within the Office of Operations, Security, and Preparedness. d. Custom software development and outsourced operations must be located in the U.S. to the maximum extent practical. If such services are proposed to be performed abroad and are not disallowed by other VA policy or mandates, the contractor/subcontractor must state where all non-U.S. services are provided and detail a security plan, deemed to be acceptable by VA, specifically to address mitigation of the resulting problems of communication, control, data protection, and so forth. Location within the U.S. may be an evaluation factor. e. The contractor or subcontractor must notify the Contracting Officer immediately when an employee working on a VA system or with access to VA information is reassigned or leaves the contractor or subcontractor's employ. The Contracting Officer must also be notified immediately by the contractor or subcontractor prior to an unfriendly termination. 3. VA INFORMATION CUSTODIAL LANGUAGE a. Information made available to the contractor or subcontractor by VA for the performance or administration of this contract or information developed by the contractor/subcontractor in performance or administration of the contract shall be used only for those purposes and shall not be used in any other way without the prior written agreement of the VA. This clause expressly limits the contractor/subcontractor's rights to use data as described in Rights in Data - General, FAR 52.227-14(d) (1). b. VA information should not be co-mingled, if possible, with any other data on the contractors/subcontractor's information systems or media storage systems in order to ensure VA requirements related to data protection and media sanitization can be met. If co-mingling must be allowed to meet the requirements of the business need, the contractor must ensure that VA's information is returned to the VA or destroyed in accordance with VA's sanitization requirements. VA reserves the right to conduct on site inspections of contractor and subcontractor IT resources to ensure data security controls, separation of data and job duties, and destruction/media sanitization procedures are in compliance with VA directive requirements. c. Prior to termination or completion of this contract, contractor/subcontractor must not destroy information received from VA, or gathered/created by the contractor in the course of performing this contract without prior written approval by the VA. Any data destruction done on behalf of VA by a contractor/subcontractor must be done in accordance with National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) requirements as outlined in VA Directive 6300, Records and Information Management and its Handbook 6300.1 Records Management Procedures, applicable VA Records Control Schedules, and VA Handbook 6500.1, Electronic Media Sanitization. Self-certification by the contractor that the data destruction requirements above have been met must be sent to the VA Contracting Officer within 30 days of termination of the contract. d. The contractor/subcontractor must receive, gather, store, back up, maintain, use, disclose and dispose of VA information only in compliance with the terms of the contract and applicable Federal and VA information confidentiality and security laws, regulations and policies. If Federal or VA information confidentiality and security laws, regulations and policies become applicable to the VA information or information systems after execution of the contract, or if NIST issues or updates applicable FIPS or Special Publications (SP) after execution of this contract, the parties agree to negotiate in good faith to implement the information confidentiality and security laws, regulations and policies in this contract. e. The contractor/subcontractor shall not make copies of VA information except as authorized and necessary to perform the terms of the agreement or to preserve electronic information stored on contractor/subcontractor electronic storage media for restoration in case any electronic equipment or data used by the contractor/subcontractor needs to be restored to an operating state. If copies are made for restoration purposes, after the restoration is complete, the copies must be appropriately destroyed. f. If VA determines that the contractor has violated any of the information confidentiality, privacy, and security provisions of the contract, it shall be sufficient grounds for VA to withhold payment to the contractor or third party or terminate the contract for default or terminate for cause under Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) part 12. g. If a VHA contract is terminated for cause, the associated BAA must also be terminated and appropriate actions taken in accordance with VHA Handbook 1600.01, Business Associate Agreements. Absent an agreement to use or disclose protected health information, there is no business associate relationship. h. The contractor/subcontractor must store, transport, or transmit VA sensitive information in an encrypted form, using VA-approved encryption tools that are, at a minimum, FIPS 140-2 validated. i. The contractor/subcontractor's firewall and Web services security controls, if applicable, shall meet or exceed VA's minimum requirements. VA Configuration Guidelines are available upon request. j. Except for uses and disclosures of VA information authorized by this contract for performance of the contract, the contractor/subcontractor may use and disclose VA information only in two other situations: (i) in response to a qualifying order of a court of competent jurisdiction, or (ii) with VA's prior written approval. The contractor/subcontractor must refer all requests for, demands for production of, or inquiries about, VA information and information systems to the VA contracting officer for response. k. Notwithstanding the provision above, the contractor/subcontractor shall not release VA records protected by Title 38 U.S.C. 5705, confidentiality of medical quality assurance records and/or Title 38 U.S.C. 7332, confidentiality of certain health records pertaining to drug addiction, sickle cell anemia, alcoholism or alcohol abuse, or infection with human immunodeficiency virus. If the contractor/subcontractor is in receipt of a court order or other requests for the above mentioned information, that contractor/subcontractor shall immediately refer such court orders or other requests to the VA contracting officer for response. l. For service that involves the storage, generating, transmitting, or exchanging of VA sensitive information but does not require C&A or an MOU-ISA for system interconnection, the contractor/subcontractor must complete a Contractor Security Control Assessment (CSCA) on a yearly basis and provide it to the COTR. 4. SECURITY INCIDENT INVESTIGATION a. The term "security incident" means an event that has, or could have, resulted in unauthorized access to, loss or damage to VA assets, or sensitive information, or an action that breaches VA security procedures. The contractor/subcontractor shall immediately notify the COTR and simultaneously, the designated ISO and Privacy Officer for the contract of any known or suspected security/privacy incidents, or any unauthorized disclosure of sensitive information, including that contained in system(s) to which the contractor/subcontractor has access. b. To the extent known by the contractor/subcontractor, the contractor/subcontractor's notice to VA shall identify the information involved, the circumstances surrounding the incident (including to whom, how, when, and where the VA information or assets were placed at risk or compromised), and any other information that the contractor/subcontractor considers relevant. c. With respect to unsecured protected health information, the business associate is deemed to have discovered a data breach when the business associate knew or should have known of a breach of such information. Upon discovery, the business associate must notify the covered entity of the breach. Notifications need to be made in accordance with the executed business associate agreement. d. In instances of theft or break-in or other criminal activity, the contractor/subcontractor must concurrently report the incident to the appropriate law enforcement entity (or entities) of jurisdiction, including the VA OIG and Security and Law Enforcement. The contractor, its employees, and its subcontractors and their employees shall cooperate with VA and any law enforcement authority responsible for the investigation and prosecution of any possible criminal law violation(s) associated with any incident. The contractor/subcontractor shall cooperate with VA in any civil litigation to recover VA information, obtain monetary or other compensation from a third party for damages arising from any incident, or obtain injunctive relief against any third party arising from, or related to, the incident. The provision 52.212-1 (INSTRUCTIONS TO OFFERORS--COMMERCIAL ITEMS (JUN 2008)), does apply to this acquisition and there is no addenda to the provision. Please include a complete copy of the provision at 52.212-3 (Offeror Representations and Certifications - Commercial Items), with its offer. The clause 52.212-5 (CONTRACT TERMS AND CONDITIONS REQUIRED TO IMPLEMENT STATUTES OR EXECUTIVE ORDERS--COMMERCIAL ITEMS (OCT 2010)) does apply and clauses that apply have been marked. The offerors are due no later than 12 NOON, EST., March 22, 2011. Please send responses to Darlene Chase via e-mail to:
[email protected]. The following additional clauses are applicable: 52.212-5 CONTRACT TERMS AND CONDITIONS REQUIRED TO IMPLEMENT STATUTES OR EXECUTIVE ORDERS--COMMERCIAL ITEMS (OCT 2010) 52.217-8 OPTION TO EXTEND SERVICES (NOV 1999) 52.217-9 OPTION TO EXTEND THE TERM OF THE CONTRACT (MAR 2000) 52.222-35 EQUAL OPPORTUNITY FOR VETERANS (SEP 2010) 52.252-2 CLAUSES INCORPORATED BY REFERENCE (FEB 1998) 52.204-9 PERSONAL IDENTITY VERIFICATION OF SEP 2007 CONTRACTOR PERSONNEL 52.224-1 PRIVACY ACT NOTIFICATION APR 1984 52.224-2 PRIVACY ACT APR 1984 52.232-19 AVAILABILITY OF FUNDS FOR THE NEXT APR 1984 FISCAL YEAR VAAR 852.203-70 COMMERCIAL ADVERTISING (JAN 2008) VAAR 852.215-70 SERVICE-DISABLED VETERAN-OWNED AND VETERAN-OWNED SMALL BUSINESS EVALUATION FACTORS (DEC 2009) VAAR 852.215-71 EVALUATION FACTOR COMMITMENTS (DEC 2009) VAAR 852.233-70 PROTEST CONTENT/ALTERNATIVE DISPUTE RESOLUTION (JAN 2008) VAAR 852.233-71 ALTERNATE PROTEST PROCEDURE (JAN 1998) VAAR 852.237-70 CONTRACTOR RESPONSIBILITIES (APR 1984) VAAR 852.270-1 REPRESENTATIVES OF CONTRACTING OFFICERS (JAN 2008) SUPPLEMENTAL INSURANCE REQUIREMENTS VAAR 852.271-70 NONDISCRIMINATION IN SERVICES PROVIDED TO BENEFICIARIES (JAN 2008) VAAR 852.273-75 SECURITY REQUIREMENTS FOR UNCLASSIFIED INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY RESOURCES (Interim - October 2008) CONTRACTOR PERSONNEL SECURITY REQUIREMENTS GOVERNMENT RESPONSIBILITIES VENDOR SUPPLIED PERSONNEL INFORMATION STATEMENT OF COMMITMENT AND UNDERSTANDING FOR VA CONTRACTOR EMPLOYEES WHO POSSESS OR HANDLE VA SENSITIVE INFORMATION OR PERSONAL DATA PRIVACY POLICY TRAINING CYBER SECURITY TRAINING 52.212-3 OFFEROR REPRESENTATIONS AND CERTIFICATIONS-- COMMERCIAL ITEMS (OCT 2010)