Minutes -Pre-proposal conference Mobile Telephone Services The Hague 19NL8022Q0061 .pdf

Meeting Minutes of Pre-proposal Conference Mobile Telephone Services The Hague – 19NL8022Q0061

Date: September 23, 2022 Time: 10:00 a.m.

Venue: U.S. Embassy, The Hague – The Netherlands

Attendees:

Matthew Mayberry – GSO / Contracting Officer (CO) Nikhil Unadkat – GSO / Contracting Officer (CO) Geoffrey Osei-Bonsu – Contract Specialist Roel van der Vlis, Mobile Administrator/Contracting Officer Representative (COR) Arthur Couture - Information Management Specialist Dave Kent – Information Management Officer David McGrath – Information Management Specialist

Representatives from Mobile Telecom companies:

1. Vodafone/Ziggo

2. T-Mobile Netherlands

3. UltiSat

Introduction:

• Introduction was given by the Contracting Officer (CO)

• Introductions were given by all the offerors followed by the introduction of the Embassy team and their expertise.

• The CO informed all the offerors that any questions contractual pertaining to the contract will have to be written and submitted by email to TheHagueContracts@state.gov by 4pm September 27, 2022.

Project Overview:

• The CO explained the purpose of the solicitation and mentioned that the solicitation is a “Full and Open Competition, where all potential offerors are given a fair and equitable opportunity to win the award. He also added that the contract has a performance period of one-year from the date of the contract award, with two (2) year options to renew.

• The CO informed the offerors that the technical questions would be answered by the Contracting Officer’s Representative-COR. He also added that any contractual questions relating to the contract should be submitted to TheHagueContracts@state.gov by September 27, 2022.

Contractual questions can only be writing. Once received, the CO will compile the questions, answer them, make sure that the Office of Procurement Executive in Washington DC approves them, and then they will be posted on sam.gov along with the minutes. All answers will be disseminated before the submission date of the proposal.

• The CO called upon the (COR) to explain the Statement of Work (SOW) and overall intention of the SOW.

• The COR explained the SOW and added that the solicitation is for the provision of mobile telephone services to the Embassy of the United States of America in The Netherlands as specified in the SOW, section 1 of the solicitation.

• The Requiring Office explained the SOW in detail and covered all technical aspects of the solicitation.

• The Requiring Office explained the pricing schedule in Section 1 of the solicitation and added that the language on CLIN 7 and 8 for the base year and options were erroneous and will be amended.

• The Contract Supervisor explained that the terms and conditions of the solicitations are the same terms and conditions of the contract. If any question or inquiry should result in a change in the solicitation, an Amendment will be prepared.

Submittal Requirements:

The Contract Supervisor informed the offerors about the submittal requirements which are:

• Proposal should be submitted by or before October 11, 2022, at 12 noon (local time).

Proposal should contain one original and 2 copies and should be hard copy submittals. The technical proposal should be separated from the price proposal.

• Offerors should follow the directions given in Section 3 for submitting the proposal.

The hard copy proposal should be submitted in a sealed envelope to US Embassy, The Hague – behind delivery entrance of the Embassy, addressed to the Contracting Officer. Offeror should mention the solicitation number on the Envelope.

• Potential offerors will have to submit complete packages, with appropriate representations and certifications, technical and price proposal, and signatures.

• Late proposals will not be considered for evaluation.

The CO delved into below provisions.

1. Reference FAR 52.222-50, Combating Trafficking in Persons and the Contractors responsibility to prevent such activities from occurring. In accordance with PIB 2021-03, please ensure all pre-solicitation activities and assessments are completed and if contractors will be providing housing for their personnel then you will need to add something in Section 3 requiring offerors to submit their contractor provided housing plan. This plan must demonstrate that the Contractor-provided housing will be in accordance with all applicable laws, as well as adequate health/safety issues and will attract and retain employees.

2. FAR 4.1102 and PIB 2012-18, which requires offeror to be registered in System for Award

Management (SAM) at the time their offer or quotation is submitted. Please reference them to

Section 3 or L, ADDENDUM TO SOLICITATION PROVISIONS, and FAR 52.204-7

3. DBA insurance, in accordance with FAR 28.305 and PIB 2017-04 also, review the Department of

Labor webpage for active waivers. If you are in a country that does not have an active waiver, or the contract will have Americans then you will have brief them on the requirement to have DBA

Insurance prior to award. Identify FAR 52.228-3 in Section 2 or Section I for contracts that do not have an active waiver and FAR 52.228-4 for contracts that have an active waiver.

4. The Statue NDAA 889(a) (1) (B) and the prohibition on contracting with entities using certain telecommunications and video surveillance service or equipment. Please review FAR 4.21 and

PIB 2020-05 and highlight clause FAR 52.204-25 in Section 2 or I and the provision 52.204-24 in

Section 5 or K and the offerors requirement to certify:

• That they will or will not provide covered telecommunications equipment or services to the Government.

• Whether they do or do not use covered telecommunications equipment or services that uses covered telecommunications equipment or services

• The CO also mentioned that an NDAA 988 waiver has been received and is valid until 2028.

If the offeror does not comply with representations and certification (either in their offer or in

SAM), the offer is non-responsive the CO may remove the offer from consideration for award per FAR 4.2103. If the Offeror represents that it does use the prohibited technology or services, it is only eligible for award if a narrow exception applies or if a waiver is obtained.

Evaluation Factors:

The CO and Contract Specialist informed the Offerors about the evaluation factor:

The U.S. Government intends to award a contract to the responsible offeror representing best value using comparative evaluation authorized under FAR 13.106-2(b) (3). A comparative evaluation is defined as the act of comparing two or more offers in response to the RFQ. The item-by-item comparison is performed by comparing each offer directly to one another to determine which provides the best value to the Department. Comparative evaluation is NOT a low price technically acceptable (LPTA) or trade-off process. Prospective offers must still meet basic standards for responsibility at FAR 9.104 and solicitation compliance to be eligible for award. We intend to award a contract based on initial quotations, without holding discussions, although we may hold discussions with companies if there is a need to do so.

• To be an acceptable proposal, it must be prepared in accordance with Section 3, and must meet all the requirements set forth in the other sections of the solicitation.

• On numerous occasions the CO & the Contract Specialist reiterated the need for potential offerors to complete all the relevant sections of the proposal, to sign it and submit it in a timely manner.

Questions & Answers: The following questions were asked during the conference

1. There was also a request to provide historical call profile data.

2. The requirement to separate the technical and pricing offer is not mentioned on Section 3, “summary of instructions”, will there a modification to include this requirement.

3. What is the definition of USA and European Union under this solicitation? Does this include the

U.S. territories?

4. Is the maximum order of €190,000.00 cumulative for the entire contract including all options or to the specific year of performance?

5. For CLIN 3 and 5, are these additional services or part of the default rate plan?

End Conference

• The conference concluded at approximately 10:45am and attendees were thanked for their presence and expression of interest in serving the U.S. Government.

https://www.acquisition.gov/content/part-4-administrative-and-information-matters#id1989G0W90SA