Solicitation Letter .doc

Embassy of the United States of America Quito, Ecuador

February 21, 2025 To all Bidders:

SUBJECT: Solicitation Number 19EC7525Q0001 – Language Training Services.

The Embassy of the United States of America in Quito, Ecuador requires to contract a provider of Language Training Services for teaching Spanish and English to Embassy employees and to family members of U.S. Direct-Hire personnel.

The selected provider will perform all teaching activities in accordance with current Mission policies governing language instruction.

Enclosed is a Request for Quotations (RFQ) for Spanish and English Language Instruction Services. If you would like to submit a quotation, follow the instructions in Section 3 of the solicitation, complete the required portions of the attached document, and submit it to the address shown below.

The U.S. Government intends to award a contract to the responsible company submitting an acceptable offer at the lowest price. We intend to award a contract based on initial quotations, without holding discussions, although we may hold discussions with companies in the competitive range if there is a need to do so. The resultant contract will be a firm fixed-price type contract.

In order for a quotation to be considered, you must also complete and submit the following:

1. SF-1449. Complete the offer portion of the Standard Form 1449, including all blank spaces, and have the form signed by an authorized representative of your company, or the proposal may be considered unacceptable and may be rejected.

2. Section 1, Pricing.

3. Section 5, Representations and Certifications.

4. Additional information as required in Section 3.

5. Proof of SAM Registration.

6. Certification regarding compliance with applicable federal anti-discrimination law. (Attachment No. 1).

Offerors shall be registered in the SAM (System for Award Management) database at https://www.sam.gov prior to submittal of their offer/proposal as prescribed under FAR 4.1102. Failure to be registered at time of proposal submission may deem the offeror’s proposal to be considered non-responsible and no further consideration will be given.

Therefore, offerors are highly encouraged to register immediately if they are interested in submitting a response to this requirement.

INSURANCE

The Offeror shall include, in their prices, insurance required, under Section 1.4.

1.4.1 DBA

A DBA (Defense Base Act) Insurance will be required upon the work commencement. The DBA insurance may be obtained from any authorized DBA insurance company, See FAR 52.228-3, Workers’ Compensation Insurance (Defense Base Act) (JUL 2014) The Offeror shall include in their prices, the Defense Base Act (DBA) insurance premium costs covering employees. The offeror may obtain DBA insurance directly from any Department of Labor approved providers at the DOL website at http://www.dol.gov/owcp/dlhwc/lscarrier.htm 1.4.2.

Amount of Insurance. The Contractor is required to provide whatever insurance is legally necessary. The Contractor shall, at its own expense, provide and maintain during the entire performance period of the contract.

CERTIFICATION REGARDING COMPLIANCE WITH APPLICABLE FEDERAL ANTI-DISCRIMINATION LAW

All Department of State contractors must certify that they do not operate any programs promoting DEI that violate any applicable anti-discrimination laws and agree that such certification is material for purposes of the government’s payment decision and therefore subject to the False Claims Act. See 31 U.S.C. 3729(b)(4). See Attachement No. 1 A pre-solicitation meeting will be held, via teams, on Friday, February 28, 2025, 10 a.m., local time. If you are interested in attending, please contact Cecilia Rosero, roseroc@state.gov.

Direct any questions regarding this solicitation, by e-mail, to QuitoProcurement@state.gov, before 4:00 p.m., local time, on Wednesday, March 12, 2025.

Responses to inquiries will be sent, in writing, to all interested parties no later than Wednesday, March 19, 2024.

Your quote must be submitted, electronically, to the Contracting Officer, Deryl van Coblijn, at QuitoProcurement@state.gov, before 4:00 pm, local time, on Wednesday, April 2, 2025. No quotation will be accepted after this time.

It is important to make sure the submission is made in specific size and format; in MS-Word 2007/2010 or MS-Excel 2007/2010 or Adobe Acrobat (pdf) file format. The file size must not exceed 30MB. If the file size should exceed the 30MB, the submission must be made in separate files and attached to separate emails with less than 30MB each.

Please submit your pricing and technical proposals in two different files.

Sincerely, Deryl van Coblijn, Contracting Officer