QAs 6-15-26.docx

6/15/26 Q&As

1. The solicitation references prior Department of State Spanish-to-English translation experience. Is this a mandatory requirement for all proposed translators, only key personnel, or is it considered an evaluation preference? THE CONTRACTORS’ QUALIFICATIONS AND EXPERIENCE WILL BE EVALUATED BASED ON THE CONTRACTOR QUALIFICATIONS IDENTIFIED IN THE PERFORMANCE WORK STATEMENT. THE CONTRACTOR MUST ASSURE THAT THE WORK WILL BE PERFORMED BY NO MORE THAN 2 INDIVIDUALS TRANSLATORS ASSIGNED TO THIS CONTRACT AND THEY MUST BOTH MEET THE REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS.

2. If prior Department of State experience is not available, will comparable federal, state, engineering, scientific, legal, or technical translation experience be considered acceptable? THE CONTRACTORS’ QUALIFICATIONS AND EXPERIENCE WILL BE EVALUATED BASED ON THE CONTRACTOR QUALIFICATIONS IDENTIFIED IN THE PERFORMANCE WORK STATEMENT.

3. Must all proposed translators individually meet every qualification listed in the solicitation, or may the contractor propose a team whose collective qualifications satisfy the requirements? THE CONTRACTOR MUST ASSURE THAT THE WORK WILL BE PERFORMED BY NO MORE THAN 2 INDIVIDUALS TRANSLATORS ASSIGNED TO THIS CONTRACT AND THEY MUST BOTH MEET THE REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS.

Questions Regarding Technical Experience

4. The solicitation requests references in the water, engineering, or scientific fields. Will references from transportation, infrastructure, environmental, public-sector, legal, or other technical translation projects be considered equivalent? DEPENDING ON THE NATURE OF THE TRANSLATED DOCUMENTS PERFORMED IN THESE SECTORS, THEY COULD BE CONSIDERED EQUIVALENT.

5. Is prior experience supporting federal agencies other than the Department of State considered relevant experience for evaluation purposes? TRANSLATING A TECHNICAL DOCUMENT FOR A NON-FEDERAL CLIENT WOULD BE EVALUATED THE SAME AS TRANSLATING A TECHNICAL DOCUMENT FOR A FEDERAL CLIENT.

Questions Regarding Translation Samples

6. Are translation samples required to originate from work performed for the Department of State, or may samples from other government, engineering, scientific, environmental, or technical clients be submitted? SAMPLES FROM OTHER CLIENTS MAY BE SUBMITTED.

7. Will appropriately redacted translation samples be accepted where confidentiality obligations prevent disclosure of client-identifying information? YES.

Questions Regarding Personnel and Staffing

4. May contractors utilize subcontracted translators and subject matter experts to satisfy qualification requirements? THE CONTRACTOR MUST ASSURE THAT THE WORK WILL BE PERFORMED BY NO MORE THAN 2 INDIVIDUALS TRANSLATORS ASSIGNED TO THIS CONTRACT AND THEY MUST BOTH MEET THE REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS.

8. Will proposed personnel be subject to approval after award, or must all key translators be identified and committed at the time of proposal submission? THEY MUST BE IDENTIFIED AND COMMITTED AT THE TIME OF PROPOSAL SUBMISSION BECAUSE PROPOSALS WILL BE EVALUATED BASED ON THE QUALIFICATIONS OF THE SPECIFIC PERSONNEL WHO WILL BE PERFORMING THE WORK.

Questions Regarding Background Investigations

10. Must proposed personnel possess completed Non-Sensitive Public Trust investigations at the time of proposal submission, or may investigations be initiated after award? INVESTIGATIONS MAY BE INITIATED AFTER AWARD.

11. The PWS estimates approximately 32,200 words per month and references approximately 30 hours per week of effort. Can the Government provide historical monthly translation volumes for the past 12–24 months to assist offerors in pricing the requirement? THE ESTIMATE IN THE PWS IS BASED ON HISTORICAL MONTHLY TRANSLATION VOLUMES.

12. Are translation requests generally distributed evenly throughout the month, or do significant workload surges occur that require accelerated turnaround? SIGNIFICANT WORKLOAD SURGES DO OCCUR THAT REQUIRE ACCELERATED TURNAROUND, PERHAPS TWICE PER MONTH.

13. Will the contractor receive full access to existing MemoQ translation memories, glossaries, and terminology databases at contract start? GLOSSARIES CAN BE PROVIDED AT CONTRACT START. THERE MAY BE A DELAY IN ACCESSING MEMOQ TRANSLATION MEMORY OR MACHINE TRANSLATION WHILE ACCOUNTS ARE SET UP AND BACKGROUND INVESTIGATION VERIFIED.

14. In the event a proposed translator becomes unavailable during contract performance, may the contractor substitute personnel with equivalent qualifications subject to Government approval? YES. BUT IT IS IMPORTANT THAT ANY SUBSTITUTE PERSONNEL PROVIDE DOCUMENTATION THAT THEIR QUALIFICATIONS MEET THE REQUIREMENTS OF THE PERFORMANCE WORK STATEMENT AS DETERMINED BY THE GOVERNMENT. FAILURE TO PROVIDE DOCUMENTATION OF QUALIFICATIONS APPROVED BY THE GOVERNMENT FOR ANY SUBSTITUTE TRANSLATOR WILL RESULT IN CONTRACT TERMINATION.

15. What is the anticipated timeline for completion of the Non-Sensitive Public Trust investigation, and may contractor personnel begin performance while the investigation is pending based on an interim determination? CERTAIN WORK CAN BE PERFORMED PRIOR TO COMPLETION OF THE NON-SENSITIVE PUBLIC TRUST INVESTIGATION.

16. May contractor personnel perform work remotely from locations outside the El Paso metropolitan area, provided all performance, security, and availability requirements are met, and can meetings be conducted remotely as well (e.g., via Zoom, Webex, etc.) YES, LOCATIONS OUTSIDE OF EL PASO ARE ACCEPTABLE. CONTRACTOR WORKS REMOTELY BUT IS EXPECTED TO BE AVAILABLE DURING NORMAL UNITED STATES BUSINESS HOURS. MEETINGS WILL BE CONDUCTED VIA ZOOM OR MSTEAMS.

17. Are out-of-state vendors eligible to participate? Is there any local preference for businesses located in Texas? Everyone is eligible to participate

18. Are there any certification requirements beyond those stated in the solicitation? The requirements are: Because of limited software licenses, limited access to agency records via SharePoint, specialized and recurring agency vocabulary, special training that the agency will provide the translator on its spreadsheet tracking systems, and requirement for contractor personnel to undergo a government background investigation, it is not feasible for an agency to farm out the work to multiple translators. The contractor must assure that the work will be performed by no more than 2 individual translators assigned to this contract. The Contractor shall ensure assigned personnel have documented experience translating complex technical, legal, engineering, and scientific documents from Spanish to English. Translator(s) assigned to this contract must be able to demonstrate a high level of competency in Spanish to English translation by verifying such things as: previous work for the Department of State as a Spanish to English translator, submission of technical documents the contractor has translated from Spanish to English (including both the original Spanish as well as the English translation), client references in the water, engineering, or scientific field, other accreditations or certifications as a Spanish to English translator. They must serve as the agency subject matter experts in translation memory and machine translation software, and must have completed or be able to complete the required Non Sensitive Public Trust background investigation, including fingerprinting and forms submission.

19. Is there an incumbent contractor currently performing these services? If so, could you please identify the incumbent and, if available, provide the current rates being charged? This is a new contract

20. Since the solicitation indicates that services must be quoted on an “all or none” basis, is there a preference for vendors that provide all required services? If so, are any services weighted more heavily than others during the evaluation process? Partial quotes will not be accepted

21. Could you provide estimated annual volumes in words, pages, minutes, or hours? Additionally, could you provide historical utilization data by language? The work will include translating approximately 32,200 words per month from Spanish to English. The Contractor is expected to provide sufficient effort—historically estimated at approximately 30 hours per week—to accomplish the translation, formatting, tracking, coordination, and related tasks required by this PWS. This estimate is provided to reflect typical workload but does not establish a required or minimum number of hours.

22. Approximately what percentage of the contract workload is expected to consist of Spanish translation services? For the translation work, over 90% is Spanish to English translation. 10% or less is English to Spanish. Approximately 15-25% of the workload is related tasks (logging, distributing, attending meetings, updating Translation Memory and serving as subject matter expert on translation memory and machine translation, etc.) but not direct translation.

23. Can you provide a historical breakdown of expenditures by service category (e.g., written translation, on-site interpreting, remote interpreting, etc.)? This contract does not involve interpretation or on-site work. There is no historical breakdown of expenditures by those service categories.

24. The PWS states that translator competency may be demonstrated through verification of “previous work for the Department of State.” Would equivalent experience performing technical Spanish-to-English translations for other U.S. Federal Government agencies be considered sufficient to meet this requirement? The Contractor shall ensure assigned personnel have documented experience translating complex technical, legal, engineering, and scientific documents from Spanish to English. Translator(s) assigned to this contract must be able to demonstrate a high level of competency in Spanish to English translation by verifying such things as: previous work for the Department of State as a Spanish to English translator, submission of technical documents the contractor has translated from Spanish to English (including both the original Spanish as well as the English translation), client references in the water, engineering, or scientific field, other accreditations or certifications as a Spanish to English translator.

25. Could you please clarify the “distribution of documents” task described in the PWS? Does this requirement refer solely to electronic distribution (e.g., email, SharePoint, OneDrive), or is any physical delivery or distribution anticipated? It involves emailing translated documents to a list of recipients.