19GE5025R0110 Questions and Answers.pdf

V1, 8/20/2025

Interpreting and Translation Services Program of Technical Cooperation – U.S.

U.S. Embassy Riyadh

19GE5025R0110

Questions and Answers

Q1: Can you confirm the languages required for this contract and their expected demand?

A1: As stated in the SOW, the languages are Gulf Arabic and American English.

Q2: Are there minimum guaranteed hours or a minimum order quantity under this IDIQ?

A2: See paragraph B.3.2. The minimum is $10,000 for the entire contract (base plus four option periods), not $10,000 for each period.

Q3: Will the Government provide any equipment, office space, or housing for linguists?

A3: No housing will be provided. When work is performed in the Saudi-provided office building, workspace and an appropriate workstation will be assigned to contractor staff.

Contractor staff may be assigned a laptop and/or a cellphone for official work.

Q4: How will the work be assigned among the multiple awardees? rotational basis, competitive task orders, or by language needs?

A4: See Section C.9 Task Orders.

Q5: What is the average timeline for Saudi security clearance approval?

A5: It is not predictable, but if recent experience is a guide it can be less than a few weeks if contractor staff promptly provide any background information requested by KSA counterparts.

Q6: Can we begin work before final clearance if interim clearance is granted?

A6: In our experience KSA does not grant interim clearances. Contract staff may begin work as each individual is cleared by KSA officials.

Q7: Will the Government assist with visa sponsorship and residency permits for TCN linguists?

A7: No.

Q8: Are any U.S. security clearances required in addition to Saudi clearances?

A8: No.

Q9: Will preference be given to local nationals over TCNs, or is it purely capability-based?

A9: Only staff eligible for Saudi clearances will be acceptable. This does not normally include TCNs.

Q10: Is there a cap on the number of TCNs we can employ?

A10: All vendor staff much be eligible for a Saudi clearance. This does not normally include

TCNs; however, if KSA will provide TCN individuals clearances, there would in theory be no cap.

Q11: Will the Government allow linguists to work remotely for translation tasks, or must all work be on-site?

A11: There may be situational remote work approved and perhaps some work performed during TDY travel, but the norm will require a daily office presence unless otherwise specified in any given task order.

Q12: What is the expected start date for the first task order?

A12: The earliest date would be Sept 12, but really dependent of the KSA security clearances.

Q13: Is there a transition period between award and start of performance?

A13: It may take time to obtain staff clearances once a contract is issued, during this period the

Government will not issue any task orders to contractors who do not have staff cleared to perform services.

Q14: How will performance be measured is there a formal set of KPIs?

A14: Over time, KPIs may be developed, but there are no established performance measurements at this time.

Q15: Will task orders be firm-fixed-price per unit or negotiated individually?

A15: Firm fixed-priced (with the exception of travel line items).

Q16: Will there be any cost-of-living adjustments for long-term linguists in Saudi Arabia?

A16: No. This is a firm fixed-priced contract for a contractor to provide services to the U.S.

Government. Any cost-of-living adjustments (or any other personnel matters) is an issue between the contractor and their employees.

Q17: What is the payment schedule monthly, upon task order completion, or other?

A17: Invoices may be submitted no more frequent than monthly (unless the completion of all the work on a given task order takes less than a month) and will be processed in accordance with the Prompt Payment Act.

Q18: Is travel, lodging, and per diem billable separately or expected to be included in the unit price?

A18: The travel CLIN should not be priced individually, instead each offeror shall use $100,000 as the price of this line item.

Q19: Would the requirement be for a translator who can provide sign language?

A19: The “sign language” remark is a part of the title of the Product and Service Code (PSC)

R608. The Performance Work Statement does not require sign language.

Q20: Is the inclusion or exclusion of VAT a scoring factor in a supplier’s proposed pricing?

For example, is a proposal without VAT scored higher than a proposal with VAT when all other pricing is the same?

A20: The price evaluation will be inclusive of the 15% VAT on all services. All offerors shall include the 15% VAT in their price offer.

Q21: How is “subcontractor” defined under this RFP? Specifically, would Saudi interpreters engaged by a supplier as consultants on an as-needed basis be considered “subcontractors”?

A21: Saudi interpreters engaged by an offeror would be considered an employee of the offeror and will be required to comply with Saudi law.

Q22: It was suggested in the pre-proposal conference that suppliers include Letters of Intent (alongside resumes and other qualification documents) for proposed personnel that are not currently employed by the supplier, stating that the linguist would seek employment with the company, if awarded. Is the supplier required to fully employ any individuals, such as the bilingual administrative assistants (CLIN 2), or may the supplier engage them as consultants?

A22: It is permissible to “employ” staff on a consultant basis, only as allowed under local labor law. Offerors will be expected to have qualified staff that can perform contract work as task orders are issued. The inability to comply may result in contract termination. The Government will not select staff for offerors.

Q23: Where can incumbent pricing be accessed?

A23: This information will not be released.

Q24: Can you elaborate on any shortcomings of the incumbents? It was noted that one of the two incumbents did not perform any work due to an inability to obtain security clearance for their personnel.

A24: It is a fact that one of the contractors was never able to get personnel cleared by the Saudi authorities. It is unclear to the Government whether the contractor was at fault for submitting “unclearable” personnel or failing to provide required information when requested, or if the Saudi Government was to blame.

Q25: Are there anticipated periods when work orders will be unavailable? What would be their expected duration, and would contractors be compensated for such periods?

A25: All Saudi and American Holidays and weekends are accounted for in the contract;

therefore, holiday and afterhours work will not be required nor compensated for.

Q26: What is the estimated time frame between the issuance of work orders and the actual commencement of work?

A26: The contractor may reasonably expect to receive approximately two (2) weeks advance written notice for all task orders, whether performed within the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia or in the United States.

Q27: Is it possible that work orders can be modified or cancelled after they have been issued?

And will the contractor be compensated for their commitments and the resources they have already allocated to fulfil the order?

A27: Yes, task orders can be modified or cancelled. In accordance with FAR 52.212-4(l), the Government shall pay the contractor for the percentage of work performed prior to cancellation and for reasonable charges that resulted from the cancellation. The contractor shall not be compensated for the commitment of resources.

Q28: Will the Government allow linguists to work remotely for translation tasks, or must all work be on-site?

A28: Vendors shall expect to perform all translation tasks at sites designated in the task order.

Situational remote work has been authorized on rare occasions and will depend on circumstances. All interpreters and bilingual administrative contractors shall have successfully completed background checks conducted by the Presidency of State Security (PSS). No interpreter or bilingual administrative personnel shall hold a United States security clearance on this contract. All work performed under this contract shall be unclassified.

Q29: Paragraph B-002 specifies that the maximum number of pages is 1,000, and the description below indicates that there are four translators assigned to support U.S.

Mission Offices. If the price is per page and the translators assigned to the Offices have little or no translation work, will they be paid per page or according to their daily rate?

A29: The unit quantity in CLIN 0002 is in error. Amendment 0001 corrects the unit quantity to be Day (DY).

Q30: Will the contractor receive payment while they are on the payroll of the contractor during the period between submitting the translators' documents for security clearance and the actual granting of security clearance?

A30: No. The contractor will only be paid for work specified in issued task orders and no task orders will be issued to a contractor before that contractor has cleared staff.

Q31: Are translators allowed to work during the security clearance waiting period?

A31: Translators may not perform work not specified in task orders. No task order will be issued before the vendor has qualified and cleared staff available.

Q32: Based on your knowledge and prior experience, clarification is needed regarding whether non-Saudi translators are permitted to work in the program. This includes both on-site roles and remote translators.

A32: The Saudi Government has on very rare occasion granted non-Saudi translators a clearance. If they do so it will be an ad hoc event. The Government will not be able to assist or influence Saudi decisions on clearances.

Q33: Are there any restrictions on using the services of non-Saudi translators who are located outside Saudi Arabia? If not, are they required to undergo security clearance procedures?

A33: Remote work from outside the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia will not be possible under this contract unless as part of official travel from cleared staff.

Q34: If translators wish to take their annual leave or national holidays according to the Saudi labor law, are they required to obtain pre-approval from the program, and are their leaves considered paid by the program?

A34: Leave is a matter between the vendor and its employees, not the program. It is the vendor’s responsibility to ensure that work can be performed per task order and contract terms.

Q35: Does the required number of translators follow a fixed allocation model or a variable demand model that may scale up significantly, scale down, or potentially reach zero at times?

A35: The Government will not be a part of vendor staffing decisions. The vendor will be expected to have the ability to perform task order requirements as issued.

Q36: Will the US government provide compensation for translators retained on the contractor's payroll during their security clearance processing period?

A36: No.

Q37: If translators resign or no longer wish to work during the waiting period for the security clearance process to be completed, can they be replaced by another translator?

A37: Yes.

Q38: If a translator requests leave of any kind (annual, sick, emergency) during the term of a work order, is the contractor required to provide a replacement?

A38: Yes, the vendor is required to ensure that task order work is completed per the terms of the contract. Work may only be performed by cleared staff and vendors should have staff to cover leave requirements.

Q39: While you’ll reimburse travel expenses (with no profit); can you share common locations from 2024, or earlier contract years, so that we can pull from our best pool of resources in those areas to avoid additional, more lengthy, travel costs?

A39: Nevada, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, New Jersey, Florida, and Illinois — the training destination depends entirely on the agency (end-user). As a reminder, only staff cleared by Saudi authorities may perform work which involves travel.

Q40: Can you provide an idea of expected volumes or past history?

A40: See Question 35.

Q41: Can you clarify the exact expectations for the Note Taker role?

A41: The note taker role will resemble that of a scribe taking notes during official meetings.

Q42: We know that a prime can typically rely on subcontractors to meet material solicitation requirements, however, can a prime rely on a subcontractor for authorization to do business in the KSA and hold the necessary licenses?

A42: Vendors must be licensed under Saudi law. A prime/subcontractor relationship may satisfy this requirement, but the arrangement should comply with Saudi law.

Q43: Is there an advantage or preference in quoting in one currency vs. another?

A43: No, not to the Government’s knowledge.

Q44: Would you be open to working with technology to support scheduling? In other words, a scheduling platform that eases the process of requesting interpreting services and enables tracking and reporting, while creating efficiencies?

A44: The Government has software that can manage task orders. The vendor may propose, and the Government will consider innovative solutions for managing its workload.

Q45: When presenting pricing for consecutive & simultaneous interpretation, you mentioned “on a per-hour basis.” Can we note a specific minimum of hours for everything that is on-site, since that is the minimum industry standard?

A45: Task orders will be issued in accordance with Government requirements. The Government will not be bound by terms that are not a part of the contract, although vendors may propose performance standards.

Q46: We are not seeing any specifics on background checks or specific requirements from interpreters (only a certain language level & experience/references). Is that correct?

A46: Nothing more than what is stated in C.12 and the necessity to acquire/have KSA security clearance, as stated at C.4.1. The Government does not have visibility on the factors KSA uses to determine security clearances.

Q47: We are not seeing any penalties. Is that correct?

A47: No. Paragraph C.9.3 and the procedure in C.11 are the closest to any penalties for poor performance.

Q48: Under CLIN 003, can the course materials that need to be translated be done off-site?

A48: Remote work has been approved in the past. It will depend on circumstances and the vendor’s ability to protect program data.

Q49: Under CLIN 002, since we are talking about 4 individuals on-site, shouldn’t the units of measure be either hours or days, instead of sheets (SH)?

A49: Unit of quantity should be DY.

Q50: Under CLIN 001, can you confirm that this is for consecutive interpretation services?

A50: Confirmed. There are separate CLINs for consecutive and simultaneous interpretation requirements.

Q51: Since this is a US Government contract, wouldn’t it matter more that the personnel providing the actual services have the qualifications vs. that a local partner entity, that would be sourcing talent, is licensed to provide these services?

A51: The vendor will be required to provide qualified personnel directly or through whatever subcontractor they may work with.

Q52: In the “Instruction to Offerors” section, it states, in connection with the Strategic Plan requirement, that “[i]f the offeror intends to subcontract any part of the services required in this contract, the offeror must provide subcontractor information and demonstrate their ability to perform the required services (to include evidence of qualified personnel).”

Solicitation, PDF Page 67. It also states, in connection with an offeror’s Strategic Plan, that “[i]f any services are sub-contracted or a teaming arrangement is proposed, [offerors must include] an explanation of how the offeror intends to coordinate performance to meet the contract requirements.” As such, can the subcontractor hold the licenses?

A52: Subcontracting arrangements must comply with Saudi law.

Q53: With respect to the voice-over service:

• What language is the target here or are we providing pricing for localization into both Arabic and English (US)?

• Do we need to submit pricing for both Human VO and AI VO?

• What type of content and source assets would we be localizing?

• What would be the cadence of your submissions (1 video at a time or in batches)? The reason we ask is because we have minimum rates for anything under 11 minutes.

A53: The program uses American English and Gulf Arabic. If vendors use AI to perform work, the quality must be reviewed by qualified linguists to ensure the results are acceptable. This CLIN has very rarely been used in the past. If necessary, the offeror can propose an additional CLIN to split the requirement into one for <11 minutes and one for >11 minutes.