19DA2025Q0001_Meeting Minutes_Pre-Quotation Conference_Mobile Phone Services.pdf

Meeting minutes from Pre-Quotation Conference Mobile Phone Services – 19DA2025Q0001

Date: December 17, 2024 Time: 13:00 (local time) Venue: U.S. Embassy, Copenhagen – Denmark

Attendees: KP – Contracting Officer (CO) JC – DT Chief

UM – Procurement Supervisor (PS) JA – Digital Technology Liaison (COR) JP – System Administrator MM – Procurement Agent

Representatives from one (1) mobile phone services provider.

Introduction:

• The CO welcomed all attendees.

• The Sign-In Sheet was distributed and signed by participant(s).

• Introduction was given by the CO.

• Introduction were given by the offeror(s) followed by the introduction of the Embassy team.

Project Overview:

• The CO referenced FAR 52.222-50, Combating Trafficking in Persons and the Contractors responsibility to prevent such activities from occurring.

• The CO explained that under Trafficking in Persons regulations, Housing Plans and Recruitment Plans must be submitted with the proposal and reviewed prior to award to determine adequacy.

o The Recruitment of Third Country Nationals for performance on Department of State Contracts requirement will only apply when the offerors intend to recruit third-country nationals specifically on this contract.

• The CO discussed the requirement for Defense Base Act (DBA) Insurance, and briefed the offeror that Denmark has an active geographic waiver, but the waiver does not apply to any employees under this contract who: (a) is a citizen of the United States of America; or (b) is a lawful resident of the United States of America; or (c) was hired in the United States of America.

• The CO discussed the Statue NDAA 889(a) (1) (B) and the prohibition on contracting with entities using certain telecommunications and video surveillance service or equipment, and the requirement for the offerors to certify:

o That they will or will not provide covered telecommunications equipment or services to the Government.

o Whether they do or do not use covered telecommunications equipment or services that uses covered telecommunications equipment or services.

• The CO explained the purpose of the solicitation and mentioned that the solicitation is a “Full and Open Competition”, where all potential offerors are given a fair and equitable opportunity to win the award.

• The CO called upon the COR to explain the Statement of Work (SOW) and overall intention of the SOW.

• The COR explained the SOW in detail and covered all technical aspects of the solicitation.

• The CO explained that the terms and conditions of the solicitations are the same terms and conditions of the contract. If any question or inquiry should result in a change in the solicitation, an Amendment will be prepared.

• The CO informed that all offerors shall be registered in the SAM (System for Award Management) Database https://www.sam.gov prior to submittal of their offer/proposal as prescribed under FAR 4.1102. All prospective offerors are therefore highly encouraged to register immediately if they are interested in submitting a quotation.

Guidelines for registration in SAM are also available at: https://www.sam.gov

Submittal Requirements:

The CO informed the offerors about the submittal requirements which are:

• Quotations should be submitted on or before January 10, 2025 at 12:00 hours (local time).

Quotations should be submitted electronically to E-mail: CopenhagenContracts@state.gov. No quotations will be accepted after this time.

• Quotations should be submitted in two (2) volumes (Pricing Information and Technical Proposal) and follow the directions given in Section 3 for submitting the proposal.

• Potential offerors will have to submit complete packages, with appropriate representations and certifications, technical and price quotation, and signatures.

Evaluation Factors:

The CO informed the offerors about the evaluation factors:

• This selection process will utilize FAR 13 procedures.

• After preliminary consideration of all offers, the Department will no longer consider offers that do not meet basic standards to be eligible for award. The offers that remain will be subject to a comparative evaluation.

• The preliminary evaluation process shall include the following:

o Compliance Review.

The Government will perform an initial review of quotations received to determine completeness and compliance with the terms of the solicitation to include CYBERSECURITY SUPPLY CHAIN RISK MANAGEMENT (C-SCRM) Go/No-Go Evaluation Factor. The Government may reject as unacceptable quotations that do not conform to the solicitation. Offers must provide evidence that minimum technical requirements as expressed in the statement of work, section 1 are met as a condition to entering into the comparative evaluation phase of the acquisition.

o Comparative Evaluation.

A comparative evaluation will be performed in accordance with FAR 13.106-2(b)(3). A comparative evaluation is defined as the act of comparing two or more offers in https://www.sam.gov/ https://www.sam.gov/ mailto:CopenhagenContracts@state.gov response to the RFQ. The item-by-item comparison is performed by comparing each offer to directly to one another to determine which provides the best value to the Department utilizing technical, past performance criteria and price as described below.

This is NOT a low price technically acceptable or trade-off process. This solicitation neither requires nor prohibits the selection of the lowest priced acceptable offer.

o Evaluation Criteria.

Technical: Technical will be evaluated on the basis of a direct comparison to other offers to discern if there is any kind of technical quality superiority that would support an award to a higher priced offer.

Past Performance: Past performance will be evaluated on the basis of a direct comparison to other offers to discern if there is any significant past performance superiority that would support an award to a higher priced offer.

Past performance as a discriminator may be appropriate where based on the offeror’s performance record, the Government has a high expectation that the offeror will successfully perform the required effort.

Price: Price will be evaluated to ensure the proposed price is fair and reasonable. The price will be determined by multiplying the offered prices times the estimated quantities in “Prices - Continuation of SF-1449, block 23”, and arriving at a grand total, including all options. The Government reserves the right to reject proposals that are unreasonably low or high in price.

Questions:

No questions were asked during the conference or prior to the conference.

Conclusion:

The conference concluded and attendees were thanked for their presence and expression of interest in serving the U.S. Government. The meeting was adjourned.