-1- GOVERNMENT OF THE VIRGIN ISLANDS OF THE UNITED STATES Request for Quotation Professional Services To: ………………………………………………. Date: November 16, 2016 ……………………………………………....... RFQ No. 001-2017 (P) Pursuant to 31 V.I.C. 239 (a) (4) and Rules and Regulations thereunder issued, the Government of the Virgin Islands, Department of Property and Procurement is requesting quotations for the work described below. Quotations will be received no later than Friday, December 16, 2016 @ 4:00 o’clock p.m. Atlantic Standard Time. STAMENT OF WORK: See attached file RFQ-001-2017 (P) SOW -2- INSTRUCTION TO QUOTATIONS A. NOTICE RFQ-001-2017 (P) To Provide Electronic Benefit Transfer (EBT) Services for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) in the US Virgin Islands Information provided in the statement of work is to be used only for purposes of preparing a quotation. It is further expected that each bidder will read the statement of work thoroughly to provide a quotation that meets all requirements outlined in the statement of work. The Government of the Virgin Islands, herein after referred to as GVI, reserves the right to reject any or all quotations or any portion thereof and to accept the quotation deemed most advantageous to GVI. The information contained herein is believed to be accurate, but is not to be considered in any way as a warranty. Request for additional information clarifying the Statement of Work should be directed in writing to Deputy Commissioner of Procurement, Ms. Latisha Blyden at latisha.blyden@dpp.vi.gov. All requests will be forwarded to Mr. Richard G. Lacombe, DHS Executive Project Director, Department of Human Services. B. STATEMENT OF PURPOSE The primary purpose of this Request for Quotation (RFQ) for Electronic Benefit Transfer (EBT) Services is to procure the services of a vendor, hereinafter referred to as the Contractor, to deliver EBT services in a common and Territory-specific manner to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) administered by the USVI DHS as described throughout this RFQ. C. TIMETABLE 1. Last day for requests for written clarification will be Wednesday, November 23, 2016 @ 4:00 p.m. Atlantic Standard Time. 2. Quotations will be accepted at Department of Property & Procurement, no later than Friday, December 16, 2016 @ 4:00 p. m. Atlantic Standard Time. D. SUBMISSION OF QUOTATION All interested parties shall submit one (1) original and six (6) copy sets of quotations, which are to be delivered to the Department of Property and Procurement -3- during normal business hours, no later than, Friday, December 16, 2016 @ 4:00 p. m. Atlantic Standard Time. They shall be addressed to: Randolph N. Bennett, M.A., L.P.C. Commissioner Property & Procurement 8201 Subbase, 3rd Floor St. Thomas, Virgin Islands 00802 THE SEALED ENVELOPE CONTAINING THE QUOTATIONS MUST HAVE THE FOLLOWING INFORMATION WRITTEN ON THE OUTSIDE OF THE ENVELOPE OR PACKAGE: Where quotations are sent by mail, the bidder shall be responsible for their delivery to Department of Property & Procurement before the date and time set for the closing of acceptance of quotations. E. WITHDRAWALS OF QUOTATION A quotation may be withdrawn at any time prior to the time specified as the closing time for acceptance of quotations. However, no quotation shall be withdrawn or canceled for a period of forty (40) days after said closing time for acceptance of quotations nor shall the successful provider withdraw, cancel or modify the quotation, except at the request of GVI after having been notified that said quotation has been accepted by GVI. F. INTERPRETATION OF SPECIFICATION If any person contemplating submitting a quotation requires clarification of any part of the statement of work, he/she may submit to the GVI a written request for an interpretation thereof to the Commissioner of Department of Property and Procurement Randolph N. Bennett or via email to Ms. Latisha Blyden at latisha.blyden@dpp.vi.gov. GVI will not respond to questions received after the SEALED QUOTATIONS-DO NOT OPEN RFQ-001-2017 (P) (Name of Bidder) (Mailing Address of Bidder) (Telephone Number of Bidder) (Fax Number of Bidder) -4- above established date. The person submitting the request will be responsible for its prompt delivery. Any interpretation of the statement of work will be made in writing to all prospective providers. Oral explanations will not be binding. G. CONSIDERATION OF QUOTATION The Commissioner of Property and Procurement shall represent and act for GVI in all matters pertaining to the statement of work and contract in conjunction therewith. This RFQ does not commit GVI to the award of a contract, nor pay of any cost incurred in the preparation and submission of quotations in anticipation of a contract. GVI reserves the right to reject any or all quotations and to disregard any informality and/or irregularity in the quotation when, in its opinion, the best interest of GVI will be served by such action. Quotations failing to provide some of the items in the statement of work shall not be rejected per se but any deviations from the scope must be clearly noted. H. ACCEPTANCE OF QUOTATIONS GVI will notify in writing acceptance of one of the quotations. Failure to provide any supplementary documentation to comply with the respondent’s quotation may be grounds for disqualification. I. CONTENTS OF QUOTATION The following is a list of information to be included in the written quotation. 1. Introductory letter about the applicant: a. Name, address, email and telephone numbers. b. Type of service for which individual/firm is qualified. 2. Organization: a. Names/addresses of Principals of Firm. b. Names of key personnel with experience of each and length of time in organization. c. Copy of Articles of Incorporation d. Copy of Certificate of Resolution e. Copy of valid Business License 3. Project References: (including a notarized written consent from the authorized representative which must include: name; telephone number; email address and facsimile number). -5- 4. Cost Proposal Requirements: This section describes the requirements to be addressed by bidders in preparing their response to the RFQ. The Territory reserves the right to review all aspects of the bidder’s response (Cost Proposal) for reasonableness and to request clarification of any proposal where the cost component shows significant and unsupported deviation from the bidder's acceptance of the Statement of Work (SOW), industry norms, or in areas where it determines that clarification is required. The following information is intended to provide bidders with a format for submitting price quotations that will facilitate the evaluation of responses. Price quotations must be submitted using the provided pricing sheets. Additional price information can be added to the pricing sheets, as needed. Responses that do not provide price proposals in the required format may be rejected. Unless noted otherwise, prices quoted will apply for the duration of the term of the contract. As part of the bidder’s response (Cost Proposal), bidders should identify any cost reduction factors, the rationale for cost savings, and any options in services that would produce cost savings. Bidders will be evaluated based on cost and their acceptance of the Statement of Work (SOW). Besides examining costs, cost proposals will be evaluated based on a review of assumptions and exceptions to the SOW that are made by the bidder. Bidders must clearly articulate any exceptions to the SOW and describe how they will meet the requirements of the VI SNAP EBT project. Pricing Relationships It is the intent of the Territory to provide improved service to benefit clients at low cost while providing reasonable returns to private sector participants including EBT Contractors, retailers and switch networks. The following table “Cooperator Cost Relationships” is presented to illustrate the intended cost sharing among Virgin Islands EBT cooperators. It is provided for informational purposes only and is not intended to explicitly require or commit to payments by any particular group. -6- Pricing for Core EBT Services Bidders are encouraged to present proposed pricing for core EBT services using the format and content found in Schedule 1. If the bidder chooses to present core pricing quotes in “Cost per Case Month” (CPCM), these must include all costs associated with the implementation readiness, implementation, operations, and maintenance of the VI EBT system for the term of the contract. The start-up and pre-operations costs incurred by the selected bidder should also be included in core pricing. The core pricing must also include the costs of establishing and maintaining business agreements related to interoperability and the costs of paying Virgin Island cardholder and non-Virgin Island cardholder transaction fees resulting from interoperability. As an option, bidders can provide implementation costs as a separate line(s) item along with operational CPCM. The operation CPCM must include all items listed above except for those provided as separate line item costs. Bidders may also include hourly labor costs to address system modifications and future enhancements during the base and option year periods. Bidders may elect to discuss and negotiate these rates and costs after contract award. Finally, SNAP regulations require that cardholders not be limited in the number of transactions per month; all costs related to SNAP transaction processing must be included in the core pricing. Only those costs specifically identified in this RFQ as being outside the scope and excluded from the core service pricing may be priced separately from the core services fee. Transaction Fee Segment Government Deployed POS EBT-only Transactions Commercial POS: SNAP Transactions POS Equipment Exempt Retailers Retailer Telecommunications: Installation Retailer/Government Retailer Telecommunications: Line Charges Retailer/Government Retailer Processing EBT Contractor – Core service Retailer Acquiring Fee EBT Contractor – Core service Retailer Switch Fee EBT Contractor – Core service Retailer National/Multiple Switch Fee EBT Contractor – Core service Retailer -7- The core services fee is expressed in terms of “Cost per Case Month” or CPCM. The selected EBT Contractor will invoice monthly for its delivery of core EBT services by multiplying the CPCM fee times the number of “active EBT accounts” recorded in the EBT system during a service month. “Active EBT accounts” are defined by the Territory to be those EBT accounts for which any debit and/or credit activity is recorded during the service month. DHS may not be charged for EBT accounts without recorded debit and/or credit activity (excluding expungements) within the service month. All pricing is firm over the entire BASE PERIOD term of this Agreement. Pricing must also be provided for the 2 two-year extension options. The Territory has provided SNAP demographic and benefit issuance figures in Appendix A: Client Data for use by bidders in developing their cost proposal. Bidders are cautioned that caseload levels are not guaranteed. SCHEDULE 1 PRICING RESPONSE: CORE SERVICE PRICING FOR SNAP BENEFITS BASE PERIOD Case Type Core Price CPCM SNAP Case $ . /Case Month PRICING RESPONSE: CORE SERVICE PRICING FOR SNAP BENEFITS Option 1 PERIOD Case Type Core Price CPCM SNAP Case $ . /Case Month -8- PRICING RESPONSE: CORE SERVICE PRICING FOR SNAP BENEFITS Option 2 PERIOD Case Type Core Price CPCM SNAP Case $ . /Case Month Government Deployed EBT POS Terminals The EBT Contractor must make POS terminals available to all approved exempt retailers who do not choose to purchase their own equipment. This equipment shall be restricted to EBT use only. The EBT Contractor will also be required to have telephone lines at these sites to support this equipment. The vendor shall provide wireless point-of-sale (POS) equipment for SNAP EBT transactions at no cost to SNAP Authorized Direct Marketing Farmers of Farmers’ Markets who do not have access to a telephone line or electricity at their selling location. Bidders should include these costs in their CPCM. J. CONFLICT OF INTEREST A proposer filing a quotation hereby certifies that no officer, agent or employee of GVI has a pecuniary interest in this quotation or has participated in contract negotiations on behalf of GVI; that the quotation is made in good faith without fraud, collusion, or connection of any kind with any other Bidder for the same request for quotations; the Bidder is competing solely in its own behalf without connection with, or obligation to, any undisclosed person or firm. K. LICENSE REQUIREMENT A contract will not be made to any firm or individual doing business in the Virgin Islands to perform work with the Government of the Virgin Islands until evidence is submitted that the said firm or individual has a valid V.I. Business License to do business in the Virgin Islands. Bidders must submit hard copy of a valid V.I. Business License within ten (10) business days after award. All Bidders bidding as Joint Ventures must be licensed as a Joint Venture in the Virgin Islands. L. REQUIRED DOCUMENTS 1. PUBLIC LIABILITY: The successful bidder will be required to obtain and have in place public liability insurance and other insurance necessary as requested in this quotation package. Insurance policy (ies) shall name the Government of the Virgin Islands as "Additional Insured". The public liability insurance shall have a minimum limit of not less than one -9- hundred thousand ($100,000.00) dollars for any one occurrence for death or personal injury and one hundred thousand ($100,000.00) dollars for any one occurrence for property damage. Bidder must provide public liability insurance within ten (10) business days after award. 2. WORKERS' COMPENSATION: Within ten (10) business days after award of contract, the successful bidder must submit a copy of their certificate verifying his firm and agents are covered by Workers' Compensation Insurance. 3. FAILURE TO PROVIDE THE CERTIFICATED WITHIN THE STATED TIME PERIOD MAY RESULT IN THE QUOTATION DEEMED NON-RESPONSIVE AND MAY BE IMMIDIATELY DISQUALIFIED WITH NO FURTHER CONSIDERATION GIVEN FOR POTENTIAL AWARDING OF THE CONTRACT. M. REQUIREMENTS FOR CORPORATION 1. ARTICLES OF INCORPORATION 2. CERTIFICATE OF CORPORATE RESOLUTION 3. CERTIFICATE OF GOOD STANDING THESE WILL BE REQUIRED PRIOR TO EXECUTION OF CONTRACT. N. CONTRACT DURATION The contract resulting from this RFQ will have a base period length of five (5) years, beginning on the effective date of the contract or the date of the Governor’s signature, whichever is later. The Territory reserves the right to renew the contract for two (2) additional two-year periods which, if exercised, would result in a total contract period of nine (9) years.