Minutes of the Pre-Quotation Conference_ 19AU9021Q0011.docx

Virtual Cellphone Services Pre-quotation Conference for The U.S. Tri-Mission Vienna Solicitation Number: 19AU9021Q0011 on June 28, 2021, 10 a.m.

U.S. Government participants:

Robert E. Barney/Contracting Officer Christine Baumgartner-Lemberger/Contracting Specialist Candace C. Cotton –Deputy Information Management Officer Andreas Eckhardt – Contracting Officer’s Technical Representative Thomas Kovacs - Senior Information Technology Manager

Introduction:

The Contracting Officer, Robert E. Barney welcomed all participants and introduced all U.S. Government participants and explains their functions.

Purpose of the conference:

The pre-quotation conference is being conducted to provide prospective offerors the opportunity to understand post’s work requirements and provide clarifications regarding the solicitation.

A copy of the minutes of the pre-quotation conference along with the questions and answers is made available to all prospective offerors that have requested or received a copy of this solicitation whether they attended or not. Questions need to be in English and shall be submitted in writing. The deadline for receiving additional questions is July 2, 2021. All questions should be received by then in order to be able to prepare answers before the solicitation due date.

Answers provided verbally in the course of this conference are to be considered preliminary and are not binding – only the written answers posted under the Q’s and A’s on the beta.SAM homepage (now merged with the SAM.gov homepage): https://sam.gov/content/opportunities are binding.

Discussion of the Solicitation Package:

The following is to stress out some important aspects of this solicitation:

· This solicitation is for an indefinite-delivery/indefinite quantity contract for cellphone services.

· The contract is for an estimated amount of 580 lines for official purposes as outlined in the Performance Work Statement.

· The contract shall provide for cellphone services – SIM only, and does not include the providing of hardware except as stated under Temporary Additionally Services.

· Physical SIM cards with Austrian-based telephone numbers need to be provided under this contract and current telephone numbers need to be kept.

· This solicitation model is based on a Comparative Evaluation selection process as described in Section 4 – Evaluation Factors and not on a Lowest-Price Technically Acceptable model that we used in the past – this will be discussed in more detail later on.

· Offerors need to fill out Section 5, Representation and Certifications – e.g. FAR 52.204-24 Representation Regarding Certain Telecommunications and Video Surveillance Services or Equipment (OCT 2020) and FAR 52.204-26 Covered Telecommunications Equipment or Services Representation (OCT 2020) and have to be filled out.

· Regarding the Zadroga Act which is part of this contract solicitation: If the vendor’s country has tax treaties and is a WTO GPA member the offeror can apply to be relieved from the 2% Zadroga tax in case of award of the contract. However, the form W14 has to be submitted along with offer. It can be found at: https://www.irs.gov/forms-pubs/about-form-w-14. If the exemption for the vendor’s country applies - fill in part I, check the box in Part II and add the following in Part IV: [add country name] is a listed country with tax treaties and a WTO GPA Member and is therefore exempted from withholding tax.

Sign Part V.

Sign Part V.

· Offerors should complete the quotation by following the instructions as listed in Section 3 and 4. Offerors are reminded that their quotation includes both price for the base year and all option years as well as so to say “technical proposal” documents as lined out in the solicitation.

· The basis for this contract is the U.S. Acquisition Law and jurisdiction for this contract is in Washington D.C..

· A precondition for receiving an award is that the offeror must prove that he is able to provide the services cited in the scope of work.

· In case amendment to the solicitations will be issued these need to be acknowledged by each vendor and be returned to our office –either immediately or they may be submitted along with the quote.

· Quotation submission due date and time is July 12, 2021, 10 a.m.

· The winning contractor needs to be registered in SAM (System for Award Management). Our Procurement Office will assist with the registration if necessary.

Section 1:

· Contract duration: 1 base year plus 2 option years to be unilaterally determined by the U.S. Government.

· Project Manager: is required to be fluent in English

Section 1:

Contains the scope of work and the basis for pricing.

Section 2:

Contains standardized contract clauses. Most of them are cited by reference. In FAR 52.212- 5 (b), those apply that are checked.

Availability of funds for the next fiscal year. Funds are provided only till the end of each fiscal year, i.e. September 30 of each year. It could happen that payments might be delayed if there is no agreement on the budget.

Section 3:

Solicitation Provisions: This section gives the offeror instructions how to submit a bid.

Offerors shall fill out the blanks in the cover page prices and in the Representations & Certifications.

Offerors shall demonstrate their ability to perform work by providing the information cited in Section 3.

Section 4:

The selection criteria are listed in Section 4.

The award of the contract is NOT based on the lowest-priced, technically acceptable offer instead the selection process will be based on a comparative evaluation utilizing technical, past performance criteria and price. The minimum technical requirements are listed in this section.

An amendment is done to correct the number of option periods in Section 4 – there will be two (not four) unilateral 12-month renewal periods.

Section 5:

Representations – Offerors need to fill out whether or not they use prohibited technology – see paragraph As discussed before, The Offeror needs to check whether or not he uses prohibited telecommunication equipment. See the last two paragraphs: clause 52.204-24 and clause 52.204-26.

QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS:

The Embassy received some questions from offerors regarding this solicitation upfront. Most of them are relating to the Statement of Work. (The Embassy reads the questions and their answers.)

Additional questions could be posed at the conference and till July 2nd but should be submitted in writing. The answers given during the conference are not legally binding. Binding are only the answers in the written document Q’s and A’s that will be posted at beta.SAM after the conference at the latest till July 8th. If no additional questions are posted till July 2nd they will be posted earlier .