19RC1126Q0004 QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS Q AND A - Amendment 0001.pdf

19RC1126Q0004 — MEDIA MONITORING SERVICES

OFFICIAL QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

Section A: Place of Performance & General Scope

QUESTION 1: May the services be performed entirely remotely from outside

Syria, and is any local presence required?

ANSWER: Yes. The Government will accept services performed entirely off-site and remotely (including by a U.S.-based team or from an operations center outside of Syria). No physical presence, in-country office, local registration, or staff in

Syria (or at Embassy Damascus / the Amman Regional Support Unit) is required.

All coordination is remote, and deliverables must be submitted electronically. No travel or in-person meetings are anticipated.

QUESTION 2: Is there an incumbent contractor for this requirement?

ANSWER: Yes. The incumbent contractor is Done by Native under Contract No.

19RC1125C0003.

QUESTION 3: What is the anticipated award and contract start date?

ANSWER: The anticipated award and performance start date is the beginning of

October 2026.

QUESTION 4: Is this procurement a standalone award, or is it restricted to an existing contract vehicle?

ANSWER: This is a standalone, competitive acquisition open to any responsible offeror registered in the System for Award Management (SAM).

QUESTION 5: Is this procurement intended to result in a single contract, and will the Government provide any media feeds or data assets?

ANSWER: Yes, this procurement is intended to result in a single, comprehensive contract awarded to one vendor only. The Government will not provide any existing data assets, software feeds, or integration hooks. The successful contractor will be entirely responsible for collecting, creating, and producing media data from scratch using their own tools and methodologies.

Section B: Financial Limits & Contract Structure

QUESTION 6: What is the correct contract maximum ceiling?

ANSWER: The controlling total contract ceiling is $500,000.00 USD cumulative across the one-year base period and all four option periods. The solicitation has been amended to correct the conflicting $400,000.00 references in the "Minimum and Maximum Amounts" clause.

QUESTION 7: Is this a Firm-Fixed-Price (FFP) contract or an Indefinite-

Delivery vehicle? How will payments be processed?

ANSWER: This contract is structured as Firm-Fixed-Price.

• CLINs 001 & 002 (Daily/Weekly Reports): These services will be paid monthly against a fixed daily rate, adjusted to exclude approved local holidays.

• CLIN 003 (Special Analytical Reports): Structured as an on-demand CLIN up to an estimated maximum quantity of 36 reports per year. The contractor will be paid only for those special reports actually ordered by the

Government.

Section C: Human Resources & Insurance (DBA)

QUESTION 8: Is Defense Base Act (DBA) insurance required for this contract?

ANSWER:

• U.S.-Based Personnel: Pursuant to the Federal Acquisition Regulation

(FAR), DBA insurance is not required for contractor employees performing work entirely from within the United States.

• Overseas-Based Personnel: DBA insurance is mandatory for any contractor employees performing work outside of the United States.

• Pricing: If overseas personnel are proposed, the associated DBA premium costs must be integrated into the final proposed price covering the base year and all four option periods.

QUESTION 9: Which jurisdiction governs business licensing and authorizations under DOSAR 652.242-73?

ANSWER: For the purposes of the required business authorization and licenses, the U.S. Government will recognize the regulations of the contractor’s home country/place of incorporation.

Section D: Technical Proposal & Evaluation

QUESTION 10: How will the Embassy evaluate and compare vendor offerings? Specifically, how will the sample reports be used to determine technical acceptability?

ANSWER: Evaluation will follow the Best-Value Tradeoff framework detailed in

Section 4 of the solicitation. Offerors are advised to carefully review the

ADDENDUM TO 52.212-1 and SECTION 4 - EVALUATION FACTORS in the amended solicitation document.

Technical proposals will be evaluated on a qualitative basis rather than a simple pass/fail threshold. The assessment of the mandatory 3–5 sample reports is a critical component of this qualitative evaluation. To be deemed technically acceptable and competitive for award, the sample reports must:

• Be explicitly Syria-specific to demonstrate the vendor's direct knowledge and analytical capability regarding the Syrian media environment. Broader regional or Levant samples are not acceptable.

• Have been completed within the 30 days prior to the proposal submission date.

• Be submitted completely in the English language, including direct, unredacted links to the original media sources quoted in their native language. Redacted or sanitized samples will be determined non-responsive and will not be evaluated.

The Government will qualitatively assess these samples for clarity, translation accuracy, and analytical depth, factoring the results directly into the final best-value tradeoff decision.

QUESTION 11: May an offeror propose as a Joint Venture (JV) or utilize subcontractors?

ANSWER: Yes. Joint ventures and subcontracting are permitted.

• An offeror may rely on the relevant past performance and sample reports of a JV partner or major subcontractor to satisfy Section 3 requirements.

• However, the prime contractor must possess at least the minimum experience necessary to supervise, manage, and monitor the performance of the subcontractor.

• The past performance evaluated must directly relate to the specific roles and duties assigned to each entity under the proposal.

Section E: Scope, Deliverables, & Compliance

QUESTION 12: How should the contractor reconcile the PWS requirement to monitor TikTok with the ban under FAR 52.204-27?

ANSWER: Contractors must comply with FAR 52.204-27. Monitoring of TikTok content must be conducted via public web-based interfaces, third-party APIs, or aggregator platforms that do not require the download or installation of the TikTok application onto any device used in contract performance.

QUESTION 13: Can the Government provide the 30-influencer list and thematic report categories prior to proposal submission?

ANSWER: No. To protect security and privacy, the list of approximately 30 social media influencers and specific government thematic categories will only be provided to the successful contractor upon contract award. Offerors are expected to demonstrate their independent understanding of the Syrian media and social media environment within their technical proposal and work plans.

QUESTION 14: The Table of Contents lists "Attachment 1 — Government

Furnished Property," but it is missing from the RFQ package. What property will the Government furnish?

ANSWER: There is no Government-Furnished Property (GFP), hardware, or software access associated with this requirement due to the entirely remote nature of the contract performance. "Attachment 1" listed in the Table of Contents is officially removed from the solicitation. The only information the Government will provide is the list of approximately 30 social media influencers, which will be delivered exclusively to the successful contractor upon contract award.

QUESTION 15: What is the approved holiday calendar on which daily reports are not required?

ANSWER: Daily reports are required seven days a week, except for the combined

U.S. and Turkish local holidays listed below. The Government reserves the right to modify this list with a 7-day advance notice to the contractor.

U.S. Federal Holidays Turkish National/Religious Holidays

New Year's Day Ramadan Holiday (1–2 days at start)

Martin Luther King Jr.'s Birthday National Sovereignty & Children's Day

Washington’s Birthday (Presidents' Day) Labor and Solidarity Day

Memorial Day Ataturk Memorial, Youth & Sports Day

Juneteenth National Independence Day Sacrifice Holiday (Eid Al-Adha)

Independence Day (July 4th) Democracy & National Solidarity Day

Labor Day Turkish Independence Day

Columbus Day

Veterans Day

Thanksgiving Day

Christmas Day

Section F: Administrative & NAICS Updates

QUESTION 16: What is the correct NAICS code and set-aside status for this solicitation?

ANSWER: The NAICS code in the original solicitation (541840) has been formally changed. The modified, applicable NAICS code for this procurement is

519290 (Web Search Portals and All Other Information Services). This solicitation is unrestricted and open to any interested, responsible vendor registered in SAM.

QUESTION 17: Beyond lowest-price, technically acceptable, will the

Government consider a best-value tradeoff to evaluate the quality of the technical sample reports?

ANSWER: Yes. The solicitation has been formally amended via Amendment 0001 to transition the evaluation methodology from Lowest Price Technically

Acceptable (LPTA) to a Best-Value Tradeoff process. The Government will qualitatively evaluate the submitted sample reports for analytical depth, editorial quality, and translation accuracy, and reserves the right to award to a higher-priced vendor if the technical superiority of their solution warrants a price premium.

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