Draft_SOW.docx

SECTION C - STATEMENT OF WORK

C.1 Introduction

(a) The Department of Justice (DOJ) has a requirement for language services to support the Criminal Division. Other DOJ components may also use contracts awarded under this solicitation. Language services include translation, interpretation, transcription, source material review & summarization, and any other linguistic support activities in support of DOJ objectives and programs. Such activities may include the translation of all manner of documents (written and electronic) and the content of video and/or audio media (compact discs, .wav files, etc.), as well as ancillary services, such as court and deposition interpretation. Source material will contain legal, business, public administrative, medical, scientific, financial, historical, geographical and military terminology and concepts, including those dealing with technology as used in the sciences (chemical, physical, cyber, etc.). The specialized terminology used to express concepts in any of the given subject areas usually vary considerably from everyday usage in any of the target or source languages in question.

(b) The Contractor must furnish all resources necessary for abstracting, translating, editing and transcribing books, historical and military documents, journal articles, reports, manuscripts, letters, legal documents, memoranda, and other written, PowerPoint presentations, audio and video materials from foreign languages into grammatically correct English and from English into grammatically correct foreign languages on an as-needed basis as specified herein. As the Contractor is considered an independent expert, the Contractor must provide bilingual certifications, admissible in court, as to truth and accuracy of the translation, and certify the accuracy of all products, unless otherwise stipulated in this contract. Attachment (XX) is the certification format to be used.

(c) The material to be translated, transcribed, or interpreted is, as a rule, legal in nature. The substance of the materials, however, may vary widely and is frequently highly complex, technical, and specialized. Examples of subject matter areas include: detailed German-language materials using Nazi terminology and other specific euphemisms and concepts employed before, during, and after World War II; patent or copyright infringement involving scientific formulas in a Chinese dialect; complex bank transactions which occurred in a foreign country and are represented by specific banking or financial terminology native to that country; elaborate and unique cybercrime; highly time-sensitive, classified documents dealing with treaties or extradition matters.

(d) All of the material made available to the Contractor will be either “sensitive” or “classified” requiring strict controls and confidentiality measures are in place at all times. All Contractor personnel are subject to the Security Requirements specified herein and must sign and abide by the Confidentiality Agreement contained in Attachment (XX).

C.2 Background

(a) The Department of Justice, Criminal Division, develops, enforces, and supervises the application of all Federal laws except those specifically assigned to other divisions. In addition to its direct litigation responsibilities, the Division formulates and implements criminal law enforcement policy and provides advice and assistance to Offices of United States Attorneys, other components of the Department of Justice such as litigating Divisions to include, but not limited to, Civil Rights Division, Civil Division, Environment and Natural Resources Division, Tax Division, Antitrust Division, National Security Division; Federal law enforcement agencies such as the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Drug Enforcement Administration; and, Departmental program & administrative components such as the Office of Justice Programs, Office of Inspector General, and the Executive Secretariat of the Office of the Attorney General. In addition, the Division also provides support to agencies of State and Local government.

(b) Any of these other components may require language services under the terms of this contract, which will be centrally administered by the Criminal Division, Office of Administration. For all Department of Justice components, Requests for Services will be approved by and invoiced to the Office of Administration, at the request of the initiating office and under the supervision of a Contracting Officer’s Representative (COR). At the request of the Executive Officer, Criminal Division, for Sections or Offices with high-volume or specialized translations needs, the Contracting Officer may designate Ordering Officials to request and accept work for that Section or Office.

C.3 Scope of Contract

This contract is available for use by the Department of Justice on an indefinite delivery/indefinite quantity task order basis to obtain language services as defined herein. Performance under this contract may be provided anywhere in the United States and its territories. Depending on the nature of the assignment, work may be performed at the contractor site or at a site designated by the Government. Services which require access to classified material must be performed at the Contractor’s local facility which has been granted facility clearance.

C.4 Statement of Work

C.4.1 Program Management

(a) The Contractor’s program management office shall be located within the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area, including the necessary resources (management, technical and financial) needed to support this contract.

(b) The Contractor’s Program Manager shall be responsible for technical and administrative performance of all services required hereunder. The Program Manager shall be the single point of contact through which all Contractor/Government communications, work, and technical direction shall flow. The Program Manager shall receive and execute, on behalf of the Contractor, all orders for work and technical direction as the COR and authorized ordering officials may issue within the terms and conditions of the contract. All administrative support of Contractor technical personnel required to fulfill the tasks assigned under this contract shall be the responsibility of the Contractor.

(c) The Contractor shall provide all management, administration, staffing, planning, scheduling, equipment, procuring, storage, etc., necessary to provide the services required by the contract and/or task order. Program management support to be provided by the Contractor shall include, but not be limited to, the following items:

1) Supervision of its contract personnel and consistent and timely management of the services to be provided under this contract.

2) All activities associated with recruiting and hiring staff, such as screening applicants (to include security approval & clearance requirements), interviewing, reference checking, skill set testing, etc.

3) Maintaining “in-house” skills, teaming and/or subcontract arrangements to ensure that personnel with the requisite experience, skills and knowledge are available on short notice.

4) Accepting, tracking and managing all task orders and work orders issued.

5) Planning, scheduling and procuring airfare, lodging accommodations, and ground transportation for all approved travel by Contractor personnel. Ensuring that invoiced travel costs are itemized in accordance with the Government travel regulations in effect at the time of travel.

6) Assembling billing data and billing back-up materials, including all time and materials needed for preparing any responses to Government billing rejection notifications. Generating, distributing, and tracking invoices, including generating reports and responding to inquiries regarding invoice status, tracking which deliverables and/or units have been invoiced and which have not, etc.

7) Tracking and reporting on Government furnished materials. The Contractor is responsible for adequate care and safekeeping of all Government furnished materials, including inventorying, safeguarding, tracking and reporting, etc. The Contractor shall reimburse the Government for any Government furnished materials lost or stolen while in the Contractor's safekeeping.

8) All activities associated with managing subcontractors/team members, such as identifying and qualifying them, negotiating subcontracts, reviewing invoices, ensuring compliance with the security and other requirements of this contract, etc.

9) Implementing and maintaining quality assurance and quality control systems to ensure that all contract and task/work order requirements are met throughout the term of the contract.

C.4.1.1 Personnel

C.4.1.1.1 Employee Qualifications and Conduct

(a) Translator. The Contractor shall supply translators in the languages specified by the Government who possess a minimum of three (3) years of experience in translation. Qualifying scores (defined as Interagency Roundtable Language (IRL) scale 3 minimum or equivalent) on language/translation tests of the FBI, other Government agencies, or qualified professional organizations will be considered in assessing qualifications.

A qualified translator must:

(1) Know both English and foreign language vocabularies typically used in formal, consultative, and casual modes of communication in various contexts, including colloquial slang, idiosyncratic slang, and regionalisms;

(2) Know specialized vocabulary (and terminology) in both English and the foreign language related to the Government’s varied roles and missions, as well as possess research and analytical skills to make critical judgments regarding terminology, including expertise in the use of translation resources, monolingual reference materials, and online material;

(3) Write in their native language fluently, but still have strong command of the non-native language;

(4) Translate in a manner that is factually and conceptually accurate without changes, omissions, or additions;

(5) Preserve the tone and register of source language materials; and,

(6) Abide by relevant code of linguist ethics (Attachment (XX)).

The Government reserves the right to examine at any time the qualifications of new translator(s) to assess their suitability and to review the qualifications of any translator(s) to be assigned work under this contract.

(b) Reviewer/Editor/Certifier. The Contractor shall supply as many reviewers/editors/certifiers as needed to adequately address the workload. They may concurrently serve as translators and certifiers, but they cannot serve in both roles on the same project. At a minimum, the reviewers/editors/certifiers must meet the qualifications outlined for translators. The reviewers/editors/certifiers shall possess a broad academic and/or experience background (a minimum of five years’ experience accumulated within the past ten years in languages required in the Statement of Work) along with superior skills in English and editing. Since the Government does not have adequate internal resources for every language required, reviewers/editors/certifiers play a critical role in ensuring all deliverables the Government receives are of highest quality. As such, the reviewers/editors/certifiers will be designated as key persons in Section H of this contract. In the event that the reviewers/editors/certifiers assigned hereunder must be replaced, any such substitution must meet or exceed the requirements set forth in this paragraph.

(c) Interpreters. The Contractor shall supply interpreters with specialized training in the interpreting field and/or extensive experience in court or legal environments in the languages specified in Section C.4.2 within three (3) hours of request of the Government. It is critical that the interpreters be competent and qualified. To meet the minimum standard, interpreters must possess at least four (4) years of experience in language interpretation in the mode required by the assignment. Qualifying scores (defined as Interagency Roundtable Language (IRL) scale 3 minimum or equivalent) on language/interpreting tests of the FBI, Department of State, other Government agencies, or qualified professional organizations will be considered in assessing qualifications.

A qualified interpreter must:

(1) Know both English and foreign language vocabularies typically used in formal, consultative, and casual modes of communication in various contexts, including colloquial slang, idiosyncratic slang, and regionalisms;

(2) Know specialized vocabulary (and terminology) in both English and the foreign language related to the Government’s varied roles and missions;

(3) Speak in English and foreign language fluently, including regionalisms and colloquial slang without altering meaning;

(4) Interpret in a manner that is factually and conceptually accurate without changes, omissions, or additions;

(5) Preserve the tone and register of original oral statement; and,

(6) Abide by relevant code of linguist ethics (Attachment X(X)).

The Government reserves the right to examine the qualifications of new interpreters to assess their suitability and to review the qualification of any interpreter(s) to be assigned work under this contract at any time.

(d) Transcribers. The Contractor shall supply transcribers in the languages specified by the Government who possess a minimum of three (3) years of experience in transcribing. Qualifying scores (defined as Interagency Roundtable Language (IRL) scale 3 minimum or equivalent in listening, comprehension, and writing) on language/translation tests of the FBI, other Government agencies, or qualified professional organizations will be considered in assessing qualifications.

(e) The Government reserves the right to require the Contractor to reassign from this contract any Contractor employee(s) who is deemed incompetent, careless, unsuitable or otherwise objectionable, or whose continued use under the contract is deemed contrary to the best interests of the Government.

(f) The Contractor shall remove any employee from performance of contract work within five (5) working days of receiving notice from the Contracting Officer that the employee's performance is unsatisfactory. The Contractor shall immediately remove any Contractor employee found to represent a threat to the safety of government records, government employees, or other Contractor employees. In instances where the removal of an employee is for substandard performance or behavior negatively impacting delivery of services, the Contractor will be given an opportunity to address the situation prior to removing the employee.

C.4.1.1.2 Training of Contractor Staff

(a) The Contractor shall be responsible for providing trained, experienced staff for performing the work ordered under this contract, and for continuously monitoring, managing and controlling the work. The Contractor shall make its best efforts to retain staff members who have gained experience on this contract, and to minimize staff turnover.

(b) The Contractor will ensure that personnel assigned work on this contract are knowledgeable of contract-specific issues such as confidentiality and DOJ security requirements. In addition, Contractor managers shall be educated in the terms and conditions of the contract. The CO and COR will meet with the contractor management personnel upon successful award to review these requirements and provide any necessary documentation.

C.4.1.1.3 Conflicts of Interest

(a) The Contractor shall ensure, except as otherwise set forth in this contract, that individuals assigned work under this contract do not have any conflict of interest as defined in paragraph (b) below.

(b) Any condition that interferes with the objectivity of the linguist constitutes a "conflict of interest." The linguist must disclose to the Contractor and the Government any prior involvement with Government cases or matters, whether personal or professional, that could be reasonably construed as a conflict of interest. This disclosure shall not include privileged or confidential information. The following circumstances are presumed to create actual or perceived conflicts of interest for the linguist where the Contractor and linguist needs to declare the conflict of interest before accepting a translation or interpretation assignment from the Government:

(1) The linguist or Contractor is a friend, associate, or relative of a party or counsel for a party involved in the assigned Government case or matter;

(2) The linguist or Contractor has served in an investigative capacity in the assigned Government case or matter, for any party involved in the case or matter;

(3) The linguist or Contractor has previously been retained by a law enforcement agency to assist in the preparation of the Government case or matter at issue;

(4) The linguist, linguist's spouse or child, Contractor, or Contractor’s spouse or child has a financial interest in the subject matter in controversy or in a party to the proceeding or any other interest from which the linguist or Contractor may benefit from, that would be affected by the outcome of the case;

(c) Upon discovery of a conflict of interest, the Contractor and/or linguist shall a make an immediate and full disclosure in writing to the COR/ACOR, which shall include a description of the action that the Contractor has taken or proposes to take to avoid, eliminate, or neutralize the conflict. In such cases, the Government may reassign work order if it would be in the Government’s best interests.

C.4.1.2 Security Clearances

(a) Each employee of the Contractor working under this contract must clear the security clearance requirements with a favorable outcome before beginning work under the contract (see Section H.6).

(b) The Contractor is responsible for screening all prospective employees for suitability for work on this contract, including credit check screening.

(c) The Contractor shall maintain a database of all personnel that have been subject to the security clearance requirements of this contract. At a minimum, the database shall include the full name, position, location, language capabilities, skill set, date forms submitted to COR, date clearance granted/denied, and clearance type. All information in the database shall be made available to the COR or CO upon request.

(d) If source materials and translations are designated as National Security Information (NSI) classified documents, the Contractor shall ensure that the following procedures are followed:

1) Materials must be stored in a locked, GSA approved security container with proper controls as set forth by the Department of Justice Security Operating Manual. The combination for such storage facilities shall be restricted to those who have a need to know and who possess the requisite security clearance. The combination shall be changed when a person with knowledge of the combination leaves the Contractor's organization, upon compromise of the combination, or periodically as required.

2) During working hours, Contractor employees assigned to areas where DOJ work is being performed must take care to prevent viewing of materials by other persons by covering or turning face down when necessary. When not in use, materials must be stored in a GSA approved locked security container, or otherwise protected to preclude access when unauthorized persons are present. The need to know principle shall be adhered to at all times.

3) During non-working hours DOJ materials shall be returned to GSA approved storage containers as soon as practicable after use. Classified materials shall not be removed from the premises of the Contractor for any reason except for delivery to the DOJ.

4) During non-working hours, entrances and exits to areas where classified contract-related materials are kept shall be securely locked.

5) Materials must be transmitted by cleared courier or approved electronic means or be sent through the Defense Courier Service or an authorized government agency courier service.

C.4.1.3 Quality Control

(a) The Contractor shall be solely responsible for the quality of services provided. The Contractor shall also be liable for Contractor employee negligence, and any fraud, waste or abuse.

(b) The Contractor shall perform quality control pursuant to the Quality Assurance Plan originally submitted in its pre-award quotation. The Contractor shall maintain and update its Quality Assurance Plan as necessary; however, any changes to the plan must be approved by the Government before being implemented.

(c) For quality control purposes, the Government may verify the qualifications of any interpreter, translator, or transcriber.

C.4.1.4 Performance Evaluation Meetings

(a) At a minimum, performance evaluation meetings shall be held quarterly during the contract performance period, or as agreed to by the COR and the Contractor. Performance meetings will be required on a weekly basis during the transition period and initial implementation.

(b) The Contractor shall be prepared to discuss contract performance at these meetings. These meetings shall be conducted as specified by the COR. Meetings will be held during hours that are mutually agreeable between the COR and the Contractor. At a minimum, these meetings shall include the Contractor's Program Manager and the COR. A mutual effort will be made to resolve any problems which arise during the performance of the contract. Written minutes of these meetings shall be prepared by the Contractor for the COR’s approval.

C.4.1.5 Reports

(a) The Contractor shall prepare and deliver a monthly report to the COR. The report is required by the Government to effectively manage this contract and may be modified by the Government for new or additional information. The Contractor shall submit the required report to the COR by the 10th of each month following the applicable reporting period. The Contractor shall deliver the reports to the COR via electronic messaging. Program format instructions will be provided by the COR after consultation with the Contractor. The Contractor shall design all required reports; however, the reports must be coherent and directly related to the Contractor's approved invoice system and human resource management system. The Government will approve the Contractor’s proposed reporting format(s).

(b) At a minimum, the report shall include the following information:

1) Task order number, date and amount

2) Work order number, date, amount, and status (for all work orders issued)

3) Discussion of problems encountered during reporting period. Describe the problem, action taken, status of problem, e.g. resolution, pending action by whom, possible solution.

4) Linguists pending DOJ security approval

5) Cumulative invoiced amounts to date by CLIN

C.4.2 Language Requirements

Translation and Source Material Review & Summarization Language Requirements:

Solicitation DJJI-17-RFP-1039 Language Services

Albanian Amharic Arabic (MSA) Armenian Azerbaijani Belarusian Bengali Bosnian Bulgarian Catalan Chinese-Simplified Chinese-Traditional Croatian Czech Danish Dari Dutch Estonian Farsi Finnish French Georgian German Greek Haitian-Creole Hebrew Hindi Hungarian Indonesian Italian Japanese Jamaican Patois Kinyarwanda Korean Kurdish Latvian Lithuanian Macedonian Malay Moldovan Montenegrin Norwegian Pashtu Polish Portuguese Punjabi Romanian Russian Serbian Slovak Slovenian Somali Spanish Swahili Swedish Tagalog Tamil Thai Tigrinya Turkish Ukrainian Urdu Vietnamese Visayan Yiddish

Interpretation Language Requirements:

Indonesian

Transcription Language Requirements:

Korean

Other Languages:

(a) The Department of Justice reserves the right to request services for languages other than those shown above.

(b) The Contractor may be required to perform services from a variety of the foreign languages as specified above into English and from English into foreign languages. The Contractor shall have proficiency to provide services into, out of, and review functions for projects encompassing the above languages.

(c) Requested languages that are not listed above as required and desired shall be invoiced using an “Other Languages” rate. The “Other Languages” rate shall be divided based on geography:

(d) The vendor shall verify with the Ordering Official at the time of acceptance which rate category shall apply for languages not specifically outlined above.

(e) Required languages will be reviewed quarterly. If demand grows for a particular language, the Department of Justice reserves the right to add the language to the required list. The vendor shall have three (3) months to recruit for the language skill set and submit an approval package to the COR.

(f) The Government reserves the right to determine if all contract holders will be required to recruit for specific new language requirements.

C.4.3 Source Material Review & Summarization

(a) The Contractor shall perform source material review & summarization services, which consists of reading or reviewing documents, or viewing/listening to video/audio media for the purpose of:

(1) Searching for specifically named information, i.e., places, dates, names, etc.;

(2) Preparing and providing a written summary, outline or abstract of the contents;

(3) Clarifying the meaning of foreign language words, terms, and phrases;

(4) Organizing a large volume of material into thematic concepts to filter out irrelevant and/or repetitive material; and/or,

(5) Providing a verbal summary or information regarding the contents of the documents/audio/video.

(b) The Contractor shall perform review and summarization assignments at the Government work site during the specified dates and times if requested by the Government.

(c) The Contractor shall supply linguists for this skill set in the languages specified in C.4.2.

(d) The Contractor is not permitted to use machine translation for this service type. The review and summarization assignments must be completed by linguists.

C.4.4 Translation

(a) The Contractor shall supply translators in the languages specified in C.4.2. The Contractor shall be proficient in translating all manner of materials and possess extensive subject knowledge, in keeping with the broad range of subject matter cited in C.1(b). The Government reserves the right to examine the qualifications of translator(s) to assess their suitability. In addition, the Contractor must possess the capability and equipment to handle the challenges of defective or incomplete source materials and exceptionally high quality product requirements, e.g., scanners, enlarging copiers, etc.

(b) To effect satisfactory preparation of a translation into or out of English, the Contractor shall provide the full, technically and linguistically accurate rendition of the source(s) including annotations, table of contents, abstract, main text, references, tables, figures, charts, etc., enlarged or reduced as necessary, for balanced, clear and idiomatically correct exposition presented in a letter-perfect copy generated by an electronic processor. For English-language texts, the Contractor shall use only idiomatic American English with standard American spelling and internationally recognized abbreviations and symbols. With delivery, the Contractor shall provide the names of the translator and the reviewer/editor/certifier performing the work for the assignment/project with delivery.

(c) Word counts shall be predicated on the source word count using software technology. Such software includes WordPerfect, Adobe Acrobat, Microsoft Word, Microsoft PowerPoint, and Microsoft Excel. Word counts in the source document shall form the basis of invoicing, but the Government will not pay for repetitive/duplicative content (i.e. bank records where a template can be used). English word counts are to be used when a character-based language is either source or target (i.e. Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Thai). Translated word counts are to be used when a source document does not lend itself to automated word count technology (i.e. handwritten documents, documents that cannot render OCR).

(d) The Contractor shall use translation productivity tools that facilitate the efforts of linguists by building and using active databases for commonly used phrases (ex. SDL Trados). The Contractor shall use these tools to save time, reduce costs, and increase consistency. These tools, however, shall never take the place of human translation/review since context is of upmost importance for accuracy. Further, the Contractor shall forgo using such software in situations where the effort required to use the software exceeds the benefit of using the tool. The Contractor shall ensure that using such a tool(s) is advantageous to the Government in terms of time, cost, and consistency. The Contractor shall turn over a copy of the developed language databases and electronic repositories to the Government at the end of the contract for future use.

C.4.5 Interpretation

(a) The Contractor shall supply interpreters fluent in the languages specified in C.4.2. The Government may issue work orders to the Contractor for provision of interpreting services, e.g., simultaneous or consecutive court interpretation services within or outside the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area (Domestic or International Locations), in support of Department of Justice litigation or operations, or to assist foreign officials. The work order will specify the anticipated schedule and number of hours of the interpreting assignment (see C.4.5. d). The Government reserves the right to examine the qualifications of interpreter(s) to assess their suitability.

(b) Interpreting is defined as the verbal rendering of speech from one language to another. The Contractor shall be proficient in performing simultaneous and consecutive as follows:

(1) Simultaneous interpretation requires the interpreter to speak almost contemporaneously with the speaker whose words are being interpreted, without any pauses since both interpreter and speaker are talking at virtually the same time. Simultaneous interpretation generally requires the use of special equipment.

(2) Consecutive interpretation requires pauses on the part of both the interpreter and the speaker: the speaker will utter a sentence, phrase or thought, and then the interpreter will usually signal for the speaker to pause so that the interpreter can translate what has just been said. Interpretation requirements may be from the target language into English or from English into the target language.

(c) If requested to do so by the Government, the Contractor shall testify in court as to the accuracy of translations.

(d) The Government will only order half-day (4 hours) or full-day (8 hours) interpretation assignments (ex. a 6-hour assignment will be ordered as a full-day and 3-hour assignment will be ordered as a half-day). Should the Government require assignments above a standard full-day, the Contractor must bill for a full day, and only the additional hours beyond the full day (not a full day plus a half day). The billing structure shall, therefore, remain hour-for-hour, with the understanding that “half day” is 4 hours, “full day” is 8 hours, and beyond full day is 8 hours, plus the hours beyond 8. Likewise, in some instances, the Government may require short, consecutive interpretation over the phone. In these situations, the Contractor shall bill at an hourly rate; there will be no half-day minimum. These short, consecutive interpretation requirements will not exceed two (2) hours.

(e) The Contractor shall provide a minimum of two (2) interpreters for simultaneous assignments.

(f) The Contractor shall provide one (1) interpreter for consecutive assignments. The Government may require more than one (1) interpreter for consecutive assignments when the requirement is complex or too challenging for one (1) linguist.

(g) Travel time for interpreters is a billable expense; however, it must be reduced by 50% of the established consecutive/simultaneous rate.

C.4.6 Transcription

(a) The Contractor shall perform verbatim transcription services which consist of transcribing into text from recordings of interviews, phone calls, testimony, etc., which may be in audio or video recording format. This must include all elements of the recording (i.e. background noise, coughing, sneezing, etc.). Transcription projects handled under this contract encompass only foreign language material. Projects that consist of only English to English transcription are not authorized. Work orders/ordering documents issued for transcription assignments may consist of more than one audio file for the project. Some projects may consist of several audio files with varying audio lengths.

(b) The Contractor shall ensure that completed transcription projects are court-ready and free of errors and/or omissions. The Contractor shall do its best to identify unintelligible [UI] audio before marking it as such in the completed transcription. The Contractor shall specifically outline in its Quality Control Plan (Section L) how it will review and ensure accuracy of completed transcription projects prior to their return.

(c) The Contractor shall be familiar with the National Association of Judiciary Interpreters & Translators General Guidelines and Minimum Requirements for Transcript Translation in Any Legal Setting (Attachment (XX)) as a framework for transcription services.

C.4.7 Projects Requiring Transcription and Translation

If a particular project requires both transcription and translation, the Contractor shall complete and invoice for the project under the specific CLINS for each language service. The transcription and translation shall be viewed and invoiced as separate language services; therefore, the invoice should reflect the hourly total for the transcription portion of the project, and the word count for the translation portion of the project.

C.4.8 Certification

C.4.8.1 Translation Certification Form

(a) The Contractor shall certify each translation and return said bilingual certification with the completed translation. The technical and linguistic accuracy of each translation is of paramount importance to the Government. The Contractor shall ensure that each translation is a complete, precise, idiomatically correct rendering from the source language into the target language and is reviewed and certified by the Contractor as a true and accurate translation of the document as admissible in court. The individual certifying the translation shall be a person other than the original translator and qualified in both the language being certified and English. The Contractor shall certify each document separately, as opposed to batch or group certifications, at the rates specified in Section B for translation. The project will not be considered complete until the certification is received; therefore, if a certification is sent late, the vendor will be subject to the late penalty specified in Section F.8.3.

(b) Periodically, the Government may waive or may not require the project to have a second linguist (or reviewer) certify the translation. In these instances, the vendor shall reduce the cost of the project by the percentage specified in CLIN XXXX.

(c) The Government may require that a previously translated document be re-examined by the Contractor and re-certified. Such documents may include translations performed by another Contractor, translations performed at some time in the past for which certification was not finalized, or translations that are outdated for any of a variety of reasons. In such circumstances, the Contractor will be provided with the source language document and the translated version and asked to review and re-certify, as required.

(d) On occasion, time constraints will dictate that the Government makes necessary corrections to a document (for example, if the Government is meeting a discovery deadline). Typically, these corrections will be made to minor errors, such as misspelled names. In these instances, the Government will provide the Contractor written notification of the error(s) and the corrective action taken by the Government. The Government will submit a request for Certification to the Contractor, accompanied by the final translation for review and certification.

(e) If requested to do so by the Government, the Contractor shall testify in court as to the accuracy of translations (CLIN XXXX).

C.4.8.2 Interpretation Certification Form

The Contractor shall complete an Interpretation Certification Form for each Interpreter assignment. The certification shall outline the date the work was performed and the hours that services were provided. The certification form shall be signed after completion of the assignment by the requestor and/or a point of contact involved with the assignment. The signed certification, along with the work order for the assignment, shall be attached to the invoice submission in order to receive payment.

C.4.8.3 On-Site Work Certification Form

The Contractor shall provide an on-site work certification form for all work that is performed on-site and is billed at the hourly rate (i.e. source material review & summarization). The Contractor shall complete this certification once the project has been completed. Similar to the Interpretation Certification, the form shall outline the date the work was performed and the hours that services were provided. The certification form shall be signed after completion of the assignment by the requestor and/or a point of contact involved with the assignment. The signed certification, along with the work order for the assignment, shall be attached to the invoice submission in order to receive payment.

C.4.8.4 Requesting “Certified” Interpreters

(a) In some situations, the venue in which interpretation is to be conducted may require that the interpreter be “certified.” “Certification” refers not to security clearances or the Interpretation Certification Form, but to corroboration of interpreter competency by a governmental authority, in this case usually Federal or state courts. If certification is required for a specific venue, the Government will provide the Contractor with specific information about the venue in which the interpreter is to work. The Contractor shall ensure that the “certification” of the interpreter (if certification is a requirement) or qualification requirements, is suitable for the specified purpose and venue. In addition to meeting certification or qualification requirements, the interpreter must meet the security requirements specified in the contract at H.6. If the interpreter has not previously met the security screening requirements under this contract, the Contractor must allow for additional time for completion of these requirements prior to assignment.

(b) In accordance with the Court Interpreters Act, 28 U.S.C. § 1827, the Director of the Administrative Office of the United States Courts prescribes the standards and guidelines for selecting and using interpreters in federal court proceedings. Information regarding the Federal Court Interpreter Program and instructions for completing the certification or qualification process may be found at: http://www.uscourts.gov/FederalCourts/UnderstandingtheFederalCourts/DistrictCourts/CourtInterpreters.aspx.

C.4.9 Performance Standards

(a) Condition of Source Material(s). The physical condition of source materials will vary in degree of difficulty in terms of legibility and format. The COR will identify on the ordering document if the complexity of the source document warrants payment of a poor quality source or special formatting fee.

(1) Poor quality source fees shall apply only to translation projects, and not to transcription projects. Poor quality source fees are to be charged at the hourly rate specified in CLIN XXXX, and may be charged only upon the written approval of the COR/ACOR. This fee shall be used to cover processing documents that are barely legible. Examples include illegible hand-written materials, faded typewritten materials, and photo copies and/or scanned images that omit portions of words or sentences from the original document.

(2) If a linguist is unable to make a determination regarding a portion of audio, the linguist, upon written approval of the COR/ACOR, may mark the audio as unintelligible.

(3) Special Formatting Fees are to be charged at the hourly rate specified in CLIN XXXX, and may be charged only upon the written approval of the COR/ACOR. Special formatting is defined as reproducing items in a document outside of normal computer processing capabilities. Examples of special formatting include charts, graphs, forms, fingerprint cards, and autopsy reports.

(b) Format of Completed Translation Deliverables. The Contractor shall finish, edit, and print the completed translation to be optically faithful to the source document; specifically, the Contractor shall insert hand entries, charts, tables, forms, graphs, and pictures as near as possible to the paragraph to which they relate, forms are to be reproduced as forms, etc. On occasion, the Government may define special requirements for formatting or presentation of the deliverable at the time the work order is issued. Special formatting requirements will be indicated on the work order at the time of order or must be subsequently approved by the COR/Ordering Official. Special formatting includes reproducing items outside of normal computer processing capabilities, i.e. charts, graphs, etc.

(c) Electronic Formats. The Contractor shall provide editable, electronic copies of each project in software formats and on media compatible with Criminal Division software standards. Standard software includes Adobe Acrobat, Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel, and Microsoft PowerPoint. The COR will advise the Contractor of upgrades and/or changes to Criminal Division software as they occur. Acceptable media include CDs and e-mail; other modes may be arranged at the convenience of the Government.

(d) Print Quality. Hard copies of translations may be requested for certain projects. If a hard copy is necessary, this will be requested in advance on the work order for the project. The Contractor shall produce the hard copy deliverable on a high quality state-of-the-art printer in a format compatible with Criminal Division software and hardware. No strikeovers, erasures, hand-written corrections or use of correction tape are permitted.

(e) Punctuation. The Contractor shall use accepted standard English punctuation in all deliverables furnished in English; this will not necessarily parallel the punctuation contained in the foreign language of the original. Punctuation in documents delivered into languages other than English shall follow the standard conventions for those languages. Clarity and faithful rendering of the meaning of the original shall dictate what punctuation to use.

(f) Archives. To assure accurate and reliable archival storage, the Contractor shall maintain at least one electronic archival copy of the most current version of each translation prepared under this contract for the duration of the contract. Archival storage of classified documents shall be in a GSA approved container. The archival materials and media are understood to be the property of the Government and are not to be lent or distributed in any form. Archival materials shall be organized by contract year and reference number, and turned over on removable media (external hard drive, CD, etc), intact and unchanged, at the conclusion of the contract.

C.4.10 Deliverables/Delivery Schedule

The following items are deliverable for each category of services performed under this contract.

(1) Source Material Review & Summarization. The Contractor shall provide one (1) original of each summary prepared along with the Government-furnished source material, in hard copy or electronic format as requested. The Contractor shall perform source material review & summarization of materials at a rate of not fewer than 2,000 words per business day, unless the document is less than 2,000 words. If the requested source material review & summarization is to be delivered verbally, no written deliverable is necessary.

(2) Translations. The Contractor shall provide one (1) editable, electronic copy of all translations prepared unless the requestor explicitly requests that a hard copy be provided. The electronic file name shall be preserved with the suffix appended to the end. The suffix shall be named after the target language using the first four letters of the language (ex. DOJ00001234-SPAN.docx, SubpoenaReturnUSvCompany-ENGL.docx). The Contractor shall retain electronic archived copies of the final versions of translations pursuant to C.4.9(g) in its facilities throughout the duration of the contract and shall turn over these electronic copies to the Government when requested or at the conclusion of the Contract. At the request of the Government, either in individual cases or as a standing order, the Contractor shall deliver electronic copies of translations from the translation archive. In addition, the Government may, from time to time, require additional copies of that translation. In that case, the Contractor shall provide electronic or additional paper copies of translations in the same finished format as originally accepted by the Government.

Translation rates are predicated upon three criteria: number of words of the source or target document (see C.4.4.b), difficulty or complexity of the source document, and required delivery schedules. Delivery time is computed from the time of delivery of material to the Contractor. Delivery will be considered to have occurred using the methods described in Section F.4 and F.6. A four-tiered rating structure shall apply based on the following requirements:

Table 2 - Translation Delivery Schedules

Lengthy Project Fee: For documents that exceed the word counts for the rate-schedule categories, the Contractor may charge the Government a surcharge, to be specified in the CLIN XXXX Series. For example, if the duration of the project is between four (4) to seven (7) business days, and the translation exceeds 25,500 words, the additional percentage outlined in CLIN XXXX, “Premium Words > 25,000”, is an applicable charge. Application of the surcharge is predicated upon the Contractor meeting the specified due date.

The COR/ACOR will indicate the rate schedule on the work order at the time a document is submitted for translation. Changes to the rate schedule for any service request may only be made by the COR/Ordering Official.

(3) Interpretation. The Contractor shall provide simultaneous and/or consecutive interpretation services as needed, pursuant to C.4.5. The Government will indicate which interpretation is required on the work order issued for each completed assignment. The Contractor shall also provide a signed Certificate of Interpretation at the time of invoice to validate that interpretation services have been performed.

(4) Transcription. Delivery will be indicated on the work order issued for each instance but will not be less than one (1) business day. Where transcription is required, the Contractor shall supply an estimate to the COR/ACOR upon acceptance of the requested project.

For projects that require translation and transcription, the translations for the project shall follow the guidance outlined in Table 2. For side-by-side transcription projects, the translation word count shall not include the transcribed text. The transcribed text shall be considered the source word count, and the translation shall be billed pursuant to Section C.4.4.

(5) Additional Copies. The Contractor shall deliver additional copies within five (5) business days after receipt of the work order.

(6) Certifications. The Contractor shall supply a certification with each translation, interpretation, or on-site hourly work pursuant to C.4.8.

C.4.11 Corrections/Revisions

(a) Corrections. The Contractor shall furnish complete and accurate deliverables. The Government reserves the right to return any deliverable(s) that contains errors. Such errors include, but are not limited to, omissions, misspellings and typographical errors, errors in grammar, syntax, and punctuation, missing or illegible pages, or clearly erroneous translation of words, phrases, or sentences. The Contractor shall furnish the corrected deliverable(s) within five (5) business days after notification by the Government for routine jobs, within two (2) business days for premium jobs, and within one (1) business day for priority and urgent jobs.