19GB5025Q0004_Pre-Award conference - Final.pdf

SBU - CONTRACTING AND ACQUISITIONS

ATTACHMENT 3

Pre-proposal conference – Multi Purpose Room

U.S. Embassy Libreville

Date: January 16, 2025

Minutes from Pre-Proposal Conference of January 16, 2025, at 10:00.

Definition

Government: Government of the United States of America

COR: Contracting Officer Representative

CO: Contracting Officer.

Introduction

A Pre-Proposal Conference was held on January 16, 2025, at 10:00. Five different companies participated.

The Human Resources Specialist, Carine Lartey, is the Contracting Officer Representative for this Contract.

The current Contracting Officer is Nathaniel Rudy (General Services Officer).

The Contract assistant is Judith Abourou

The Procurement Agent is Wilfrid Ndoutoume.

Discussion of the Solicitation Package

The following sections of the solicitation were highlighted:

The offer

Vendors were reminded that offers shall be in two (2) distinct volumes and include:

1. Section 1 Pricing (SF-1449, pricing tables in Section 1 and DBA Insurance premium cost).

2. Section 3, Technical Proposal criteria (Technical, SAM Registration, Section 5, Representations and Certifications)

Vendors were also instructed to provide a completed list of references which shall include dates of contracts, places of performance, value of contracts, contact names, telephone numbers and email addresses).

(Refer to solicitation Section 3 for more details).

Emphasis was also placed on all legal documents which have to be part of their offer (refer to section 3).

Vendors were encouraged to provide proper offers with sufficient details to allow a good evaluation of the bids.

Payment of Invoice:

For payment, invoice shall follow guidance provided in DOSAR 652.232-70 (on page 49).

Scope of Work

The Contract assistant did a thorough review of the scope of work in Section 1 and Attachment 1 and vendors could ask questions for clarification.

Solicitation & Contract clauses

Offerors were asked to pay special attention to the following clauses:

(2) 52.204-23, Prohibition on Contracting for Hardware, Software, and Services Developed or Provided by Kaspersky Lab and Other Covered Entities (Jul 2018) (Section 1634 of Pub. L.

115-91).

https://acquisition.gov/far/52.204-23

(3) 52.204-25, Prohibition on Contracting for Certain Telecommunications and Video

Surveillance Services or Equipment. (Aug 2020) (Section 889(a)(1)(A) of Pub. L. 115-232).

52.228-3 Worker’s compensation Insurance (JUL 2014)

52.228-5 Insurance-work on a government installation (JAN 1997)

52.229-6 Foreign fixed price contracts (FEB 2013)

52.217-8 Option to extend services (NOV 1999)

52.217-9 Option to Extend the Term of the Contract (MAR 2000)

52.232-19 Availability of funds for the next fiscal year (APR 1984)

652.204-70 Department of state personal identification card issuance (MAY 2011)

SAM Registration

The Government reinforced the importance to start the registration process in SAM right away, since this is mandatory for the current contract, and prospective contractors shall be registered in the SAM database at time of submittal of an offer (FAR 4.1102).

During the conference, a prospective offeror made a comment regarding the difficulty of completing the registration for local suppliers. The Government acknowledges that the process can be burdensome, and this is in fact the reason why all prospective offerors are encouraged to start immediately the registration process.

Furthermore, Procurement office is willing to assist potential vendors by providing supplemental guidance documents which are normally available at sam.gov (refer to the last part of the

Question & Answer section in this document).

Evaluation factors

The evaluation factors were presented to the vendors (Compliance review, technical acceptability, price analysis, determination of responsibility, SAM registration and Defense Base

Act Insurance).

https://acquisition.gov/far/52.204-25

Questions:

The attached questions were asked during the conference:

Vendors were informed that they are allowed to ask further questions up until Wednesday

January 22, 2025, at 1200, local time.

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 at 11:05.

Enclosure: Questions and Answers (1 to 4).

Questions & Answers

1 – You mentioned that the quantities included in the pricing tables are estimated and it does not specify the number of students. Could you further explain how we are supposed to charge the price?

Answer:

Pricing is not set per student so to say, but instead pricing should be a “per session of one-hour” rate. There are two types of sessions “Individual class” with one student and a “Group class” with a maximum of five students.

2 – could you further enlighten us regarding the DBA Amount?

The US Dept. of State has determined this to be a minimum requirement and if it’s not included in the offer, then this will be considered non-compliant, and your submission will be automatically rejected. The insurance must cover every employee directly working under the contract. Coverage would be for the employees who are specifically designated to the contract, even if their time Is not 100%. Please note that, at this point, only estimates are required. DBA

Insurance are reimbursed by the Government after the Contractor provides proof of payment.

Payment of the DBA premium shall only be made when the contract is awarded.

3- Would you be kind to provide a soft copy of the PowerPoint Presentation?

Answer:

Hard copies of the PowerPoint were provided to all prospective offerors during the site visit and no soft copies will be made available.

4- Can the individual and group classes be offered online? Or do all classes have to be held in Gabon?

Answer:

No, classes are to be offered in physical classroom settings and held at the US Embassy

Libreville, Gabon. Exceptions do apply for force majeure, please review in Section 1 The

Schedule, paragraph “5.5 Force Majeure: Classroom Training Exceptions”, for details.

5– SAM registration

Step 1 – Get an NCAGE Code

• An NCAGE is required for all foreign entities otherwise the registration will be considered incomplete.

• The vendor can submit their request for an NCAGE Code by going to the NATO Support

Activity (NSPA) NCAGE Request Tool at https://eportal.nspa.nato.int/AC135Public/scage/CageList.aspx

• After the vendor requests the NCAGE code, the vendor will have to search BINCS to see if their information has been received.

• Some countries may take several weeks for the information to be sent to BINCS. We noted that for Gabon, it takes 48 to 72 hours.

• Once the information has been received by BINCS the vendor can now start the registration process for SAM

• Please note that the legal business name and physical address MUST be exactly the same in all systems: NCAGE and SAM.

• The address has to be a street address containing no special characters.

Step 2 – Get a Unique Entity Identification Number (UEI)

• Before a company can register in SAM, the vendor must also get a UEI Number. Please visit www.sam.gov for that purpose.

You will be required to provide legal business documents in both original and English versions (certified translation).

Step 3 – Register in SAM

• To start your registration log back to www.sam.gov .

• You need to have all the necessary information regarding your company (number of employees, your average income, key contact for SAM, etc…).

• SAM imports the NCAGE information and compares it. If the information is not exactly the same, the vendor will not be able to register in SAM.

The Embassy is not responsible for any information or processing by the General Services

Administration for SAM registration. The steps provided above are for informational and administrative purposes only. Only the SAM.gov website and GSA can provide the precise instructions, requirements, and approvals for SAM registration.”

Attached to this Minutes of Meeting, we are also adding the Entity registration checklist for further information.

https://eportal.nspa.nato.int/AC135Public/scage/CageList.aspx http://www.sam.gov/ http://www.sam.gov/