The Provision of Architect-Engineer Services - Assignment Example

The Provision of Architect-engineer Services 1.0 PROJECT INTRODUCTION 1.1 Scope In accordance with the terms and conditions of the contract and as reflected in the provisions of the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR), the work of this Request for Proposal (RFP) shall be performed for PrintMark Publication by the Design-Build Contractor (DBC) with the following phases: Provision of architect-engineer services for the construction of multipurpose office complex Undertaking field construction of the state of the art office complex Acquisition of state of the art publishing equipment Furnishing of the office complex to standards accepted by the 1.2 Background PrintMark Publication has been a major player in the printing and publishing industry and has undertaken several major private contracts. The company is seeking to focus its attention on government contracts from the next financial year. In line with this, it has become necessary to expand the existing office of the company to a state of the art office complex that can handle more equipment and people. Because of the focus of the company on government projects, the need to abide by the provisions of the FAR has been necessary in preparing this RFP to find the right outfit to carry out the planned project. The approach to this RFP is based on key clauses of the FAR including FAR §§ 15.203, 15.204 and 15.209, which focus on contracting by negotiation (Bowie, 2002). 1.3 Schedule There are design development documents that confirm an award of the project rather than notice to proceed. This is in congruence with FAR §§ 15.207 and 15.208 to begin work 15 calendar days after the award has been given. 2.0 PROJECT REQUIREMENTS 2.1 Progress Payments There shall be two major progress payments which are design phase and construction phase. Any payment to be made during the design phase shall be done only upon submission, review and acceptance of design deliverables. For the construction phase, progress payment will be done on percentage basis, where the percentage of work completed on the items listed will determine payment to be made. In order to ensure that Government Accountability Report guidelines are implemented, verification of completeness of work will be carried out with the direction of representatives of the Contracting Officer. Calculations for payment shall also be based on Governments Verification of Works. 2.2 Design Meeting A design meeting will be arranged by the Contracting Officer with the DBC to look into the design issues of the project and how it would fit into key areas of work including the following: Project needs and design objectives Environmental and sustainability requirements Schedule of values Design schedule Possible design modifications Access to project site Protection of natural and cultural resources Payments for work progress The design meeting will be followed by such other important meetings as preconstruction meeting, progress meetings, and completion meeting. 3.0 TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS The project being intended to be given out has 7 major technical components, each of which has its own subcomponents. These have been outlined in the table below. Major Component Subcomponent Substructure Ground foundation Construction of basement Coverage Raising of superstructure Construction of exterior enclosure Roofing work Interior Interior construction Construction of staircases Interior furnishing Services Plumbing Electrical Fire protection Equipment and Furnishing Equipment Interior designing Special Construction and Demolition Architectural construction Demolition of selected parts of building Building Site work Preparing ground site Improving project site area Mechanical utilities Electrical utilities The interested parties are to aid with the transparency of the whole selection process by enclosing a complete stamped and signed design-build construction documents that will make the work of the selection team easier. By comparing the contents of these documents, it should be possible to achieve the outcome of the FAR §§ 13, which ensures Simplified Acquisition Procedures. In pursuant with this, all the following indicators in the table must be covered. COMPLETE STAMPED AND SIGNED DB CONSTRUCTION DOCUMENTS ELECTRONIC FORMATS * HARDCOPY FORMATs DB-Construction Drawings AutoCAD Full-Size Paper (ANSI D) Complete construction specifications PDF & Microsoft Word A4 printout Product File PDF N/A National Project Sustainability approved Project Sustainability Checklist PDF & Microsoft Excel N/A Backup and Supplemental Design Reports PDF A4 printout Calculations for all designs and groundwork PDF & Microsoft Excel A4 printout Draft of full project schedule presented to the Construction Documents review comments PDF & Microsoft Excel A4 printout 4.0 EVALUATION CRITERIA AND SCORING In accordance with the FAR and Government Accountability provisions, the evaluation of proposals and the criteria for scoring will be as open and transparent as possible. To this effect, the following evaluation criteria and scoring are made open for all applicants to focus their inputs on. Criteria Requirements Experience and Capacity Number of years in providing construction and maintenance service Size of logistics for providing construction and maintenance service Record and history of applicants in meeting deadlines Responsible pricing Experience in meeting major project procedure requirements, including the United States Code of Federal Regulations Innovation Community hiring and engagement Effective partnership building with community stakeholders Utilisation of local stakeholders within the supply chain Implementation of sustainability and green practices Utilisation of effective schedule and budget management Threshold requirement Possession of certificate of good standing either as a corporation or limited liability company Evidence of insurance Possession of State license that is certified under the 12 U.S.C. 3331 et seq. Proof of financial stability Code of ethics of the company, including conflict of interest statement 5.0 ETHICAL GUIDELINES The approach to the current RFP follows the need to ensure that all necessary standardized ethical guidelines are followed to the letter. These ethical guidelines are aimed at minimizing any risks and consequences resulting from unethical contracting practices (Copeland, 2004). This way, it is expected that the federal guidelines on fraud, fair contracting and other forms of contract related public policies will be followed (Carasco and Singh, 2003). The core ethical guidelines for the RFP are therefore stated as follows: i. There will not be any disclosure of information to any party involved in the bidding before the due date of open disclosure ii. No preferences shall be given to any parties involved in the bidding iii. The same level of information shall be given to all parties involved in the bidding process iv. There shall not be any conflict of interest situation where directors or other employees of PrintMark Publication with subsidiary companies or companies of people closer to them will be allowed to bid v. The identities of all people involved in the bidding shall be kept anonymous and confidential. vi. The selection process shall be undertaken by a neutral and third party agency whose mode of operation shall be based on the working activities of the FAR. 6.0 SUBMITTAL REQUIREMENTS All companies and agencies interested in this project are expected to respond to this RFP by 10:00am on August 30, 2014. Responses are expected to be via e-mail addressed to Prince Parker at pparker@gmail.com. Submission is expected to be done in well labeled manner where respondents give proper and adequate labeling to the exterior of the sealed envelope that has the proposal response which contains the proposal number, proposal name, due date of the proposal, as well as the name of the firm responding to the proposal. The hard copies are supposed to be delivered to: Projects Directorate PrintMark Publication 45 Prempeh Avenue, 345 Oklahoma, OK 323 All firms submitting a proposal in response to this RFP are expected to complete a certification form note as indicated below. This page is expected to be completed and attached together with the submittal certification The undersigned hereby certifies, on behalf of the Respondent named in this Certification that all information provided in this RFP submittal to PrintMark Publication is accurate and complete, and I am duly authorized to submit same. I hereby certify that the Respondent has reviewed this RFP in its entirety and accepts its terms and conditions. ______________________________________________ (Name of Respondent) ______________________________________________ (Signature of Authorized Representative ______________________________________________ (Typed Name of Authorized Representative) ______________________________________________ (Title) ______________________________________________ (Date) 7.0 PLANNED ACTIONS IN SOLICITING AND AWARDING CONTRACTS There is a carefully planned action that will be used in soliciting and awarding contracts to ensure an open and transparent process. As mentioned in earlier parts of the RFP, the selection process will be carried out by a third party agency that will be sorely charged for this purpose. It is expected that this agency will have several years of standing reputation in this area of work (DeGeorge, 2010). The agency would have to agree to all terms and conditions provided in the RFP and must agree to abide by the ethical guidelines set. The soliciting and awarding process is also expected to be done in a video recorded manner with the exclusion and inclusion of all proposals coming in duly explained and justified. There will be one appeal opportunity given to those whose bids are rejected to make a case before the final selection is done. References Bowie, N.E. (2002). A Kantian Approach to Business Ethics. Ethical Issues in Business. A Philosophical Approach. New Jersey: Pearson Education. Carasco, E.F. and Singh, J.B. (2003). The Content and Focus of Codes of Ethics of the World’s Largest Transnational Corporations. Business and Society Review, 108 (1), pp.71-94. Copeland, J.E. Jr. (2004). Whence Ethics? Consulting to Management, Vol.15, No.3, pp.24-26. DeGeorge, R.T. (2010). Business Ethics. New York: Macmillan Publishing Read More