Performance Management, Evaluation, and Learning Services (PMELS)

The Department of State Office of Acquisition Management awarded the Performance Management, Evaluation, and Learning Services (PMELS) Master IDIQ on April 2, 2023, with a shared ceiling of $150 million and ordering authority through April 2, 2028—approximately 20 months of available ordering window remaining.

The vehicle contracts professional evaluation, performance monitoring, capacity building, analysis, and dissemination services across State Department bureaus and programs. Awarded task orders span program evaluations (media and cultural initiatives, democracy and internet freedom programs, governance projects), monitoring services (humanitarian assistance, security assistance, counterterrorism programming), and ex-post evaluations of development and diplomatic initiatives. Most recent orders include a $23.6 million global strategy and oversight delivery for security assistance, a third-party monitoring engagement for Palestinian humanitarian assistance in Gaza, West Bank, and Lebanon valued at $7.4 million ceiling, and evaluation work for cyberspace and digital policy programs.

Of the $47.9 million combined task-order potential value awarded to date, $15.3 million (32 percent) has been obligated. The vehicle shows declining ordering momentum: 27 orders in 2023, 14 in 2024, 3 in 2025, and 1 in 2026 year-to-date. Competition is moderately concentrated among 17 prime contractors. Integrated Business & Technical Consultants, Inc. dominates by potential value, holding two orders worth $23.6 million combined (roughly 49 percent of all awarded potential value). The QED Group LLC and Guidehouse Inc. follow with $9.1 million and $8.3 million respectively. Khulisa Management Services, Inc. leads by order count with 7 awards but a smaller $2.4 million combined value. The remaining 13 primes capture the long tail.

Task orders fund primarily State bureaus: the Counterterrorism, Near Eastern Affairs, and Oceans and International Environmental and Scientific Affairs bureaus collectively represent roughly 58 percent of awarded orders. The Office of Acquisition Management itself placed 20 orders as an intermediary, though with modest individual ceilings averaging $240 thousand combined potential value.

Set-aside designations remain lightly used: 38 orders (84 percent) carry no set-aside, 6 orders (13 percent) are partial small business, and 1 order (2 percent) is total small business. Task-order structures vary—most are firm fixed price, but time-and-materials delivery orders appear for complex monitoring and implementation roles. Individual order ceilings range from $1 thousand (minimum guarantees to initial awardees in 2023) to the $23.6 million ceiling noted above, with median orders in the low single-digit millions.

The scope of this IDIQ includes the full range of professional design, evaluation, performance monitoring, evaluation and performance monitoring capacity building, analysis, and implementation plans for addressing recommendations and disseminating learning from findings.