SF-30_19GB5023Q0001-A0003_Attachment_1_Minutes of Meeting_Q_And_A.pdf

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ATTACHMENT # 1

CONTRACT

FOR US EMBSSAY LIBREVILLE

INTERNET SERVICES

19GB5023Q0001

MINUTES: Site visit – Questions and answers

Pre-proposal conference was conducted on October 23 at 1000 at the US Embassy Libreville

Multi-Purpose Room and concluded at 1300.

Introduction

All attendees were welcomed, and Government Representatives introduced.

Below is the list of Government Representatives:

The Government is represented by Patrice Kengne, Information Management Computer

Specialist, Cedric Ntchouegnanga, Radio / Telephone Technician, then both Judith Abourou and

Wilfrid Ndoutoume, Procurement Agents.

Pre-proposal conference consisted of a conference and a site visit.

During the conference, the Government discussed all contract, technical, price and administrative requirements. Then, the invited service providers had the opportunity to familiarize themselves with all the locations where the said installation work must be carried out, and to share their concerns before initiating any commercial and technical proposals.

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Discussion of the Solicitation Package

- Solicitation & Contract clauses

Offerors were asked to pay special attention to the following clauses:

(2) 52.204-23, Prohibition on Contracting for Hardware, Software, and Services Developed or Provided by Kaspersky Lab and Other Covered Entities (Nov 2021) (Section 1634 of Pub.

L. 115-91).

(3) 52.204-25, Prohibition on Contracting for Certain Telecommunications and Video

Surveillance Services or Equipment. (Nov 2021) (Section 889(a)(1)(A) of Pub. L. 115-232).

52.228-3 Worker’s compensation Insurance (JUL 2014)

52.228-5 Insurance-work on a government installation (JAN 1997)

52.229-6 Foreign fixed price contracts (FEB 2013)

52.217-8 Option to extend services (NOV 1999)

52.217-9 Option to Extend the Term of the Contract (MAR 2000)

52.232-19 Availability of funds for the next fiscal year (APR 1984)

652.204-70 Department of state personal identification card issuance (MAY 2011)

652.232-70 Payment schedule and invoice submission (Fixed Priced) (Aug 1999).

The following sections of the solicitation were highlighted:

- SECTION 1 The schedule Continuation to SF-1149, RFQ number 19GB5023Q0001, Prices Block 23.

Government explained that this is a firm-fixed price contract. Hence offers cannot contain

“Price To be Determined” items and no further adjustment shall be done once contract is awarded.

Offerors were informed that the contract is subject to an excise tax of 2% under the James

Zadroga Act of 2010.

The requiring Office, Information Management team went through the scope of work in detail and emphasized on the following points (I. Scope of work):

- Strict adherence to the scope of work as this is a critical service for the Government;

- ISP must warrant service support on site if necessary 7X24X365 and likewise, the COR or GTM are available 24/24 for any incident; (refer to “Service Support and contingencies” paragraph)

- Contractor is expected to furnish high quality equipment and maintain them (paragraph

“D” in “II. General”);

- Once notice to proceed is sent out, the installation phase requires a 24 hour run test.

(Paragraph L in “II. General”) https://acquisition.gov/far/52.204-23 https://acquisition.gov/far/52.204-25

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- Credits shall be assessed against the Contractor in those instances where the circuit, during any given month or year, that fails to achieve and sustain the minimum acceptance standards as stated in the scope of work (refer to entire paragraph “U. Circuit Downtime and Credit”).

- The network devices shall not have ZTE, Huawei, Xiaomi and affiliated branded products in use on the internet connection. (Refer to paragraph “Network Devices”)

- SECTION 3 Instructions to offerors

Offerors were asked to ensure that they clearly differentiate from the price offer and the technical offer.

Emphasis was also made on the content of the price proposal and the technical proposal.

The offeror shall include a completed attachment 2 SCRM Questionnaire and C-SRM Software

Producer Attestation Form.

The Offerors are reminded that they shall obtain the mandatory Defense Base Act (DBA) insurance directly from any Department of Labor approved providers.

- SECTION 4 – Evaluation factors

The Government did a thorough review of evaluation factors.

Comparative evaluation per FAR 13 was explained (Compliance review – technical acceptability

- Price evaluation – Past Performance & Responsibility Determination).

Emphasis on the C-SCRM Go / No-Go evaluation factor was made.

Finally, the Government discussed in detail the evaluation criteria of the second phase of the comparative evaluation.

- SECTION 5 – Representations & Certifications

It was stated during the conference that all contractors had to be registered in the SAM (System for Award Management) Database https://www.sam.gov prior to contract award pursuant to FAR provision 52.204-7. We would like to emphasize that vendors must be registered at time of proposal submission as required by FAR 52.204-7 and FAR 4.1102(a), or they will automatically be disqualified from consideration.

https://www.sam.govprior/

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CONTRACT

FOR US EMBSSAY LIBREVILLE

INTERNET SERVICES

19GB5023Q0001

Pre-proposal – Questions and answers

The following questions were asked during the conference or after the conference:

1- Can the contract be managed by multiple service providers (e.g., CMR: Vendor A, DCR: Vendor B, American Corner: Vendor C)?"

This is not a multi-award contract. As indicated in our notice to offerors, the Government intends to award a contract / purchase order to the responsible company submitting an acceptable offer. Refer as well to “Section 4 – Evaluation Factors” (The Government intends to establish a single contract award that includes a one-year base year plus four (4) 12-month options, resulting from this solicitation to the responsible contractor ….)

Additionally, during the conference it was specified that the Government opted for a single award for the sake of better administrative management and technical reasons, and finally, to have a single point of contract for after sales services and improved coordination of responses in case of incidents.

2- Could you better explain the content of the financial offer?

In order for a quotation to be considered, you must complete and submit the following:

1. SF-1449 (blocks 12, 17, 19-24 and 30 as appropriate)

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2. Section I, Pricing

3. Section 5 Representations and Certifications

4. Additional information as required in Section 3

5. Proof of SAM Registration

6. CYBERSECURITY SUPPLY CHAIN RISK MANAGEMENT (C-SCRM) C-SCRM

Questionnaire and C-SCRM Software Producer Attestation Form.

With regard to your pricing, the vendor is required to provide and/or include the following in their pricing;

1. SF-1449 (blocks 12, 17, 19-24 and 30 as appropriate)

2. Section I, Pricing (all tables in “2. Price”)

3. DBA Insurance (to be included as a separate line item).

Additionally, the James Zadroga Act of 2010 is applicable to this procurement unless a waiver or exception exists (see FAR 52.229-12). Please note that the tax imposed under 26 U.S.C. 5000C may not be included in the contract price nor reimbursed to the contractor by the Government.

3- Could you provide the link for the DBA Insurance?

The mandatory Defense Base Act (DBA) insurance can be obtained the directly from any

Department of Labor approved providers at the DOL website at http://www.dol.gov/owcp/dlhwc/lscarrier.htm. (See Section 3 - Solicitation Provisions)

4- How are credit calculated?

Please refer to paragraph “1. Definitions” and paragraph “4. Payment reduction for downtime credits” in “U. Circuit Downtimes and Credit” under the Scope of Work, (Section II. General)

5- Should the redundancy be billed as an extra cost in this offer?

We cannot advise offerors on how they wish to determine their price offer. The technical offer shall show that the ISP has alternative line channels or backups in case of main Internet path malfunctioning if local conditions permit. (Per paragraph “Service support and contingencies” under the Scope of Work).

6- What is the mean of delivery, is the delivery on our equipment or yours?

Delivery is on our equipment. Indeed, modems and terminal equipment are furnished by the

Government. (Refer to paragraph “C.” in “II. General”). “Except for modems and terminal equipment furnished by the Government, the Contractor shall…” http://www.dol.gov/owcp/dlhwc/lscarrier.htm

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7- HSRP protocol implies that we should have redundancy. Shall we connect to your equipment to create the redundancy?

Please refer to the response above in question 6.

Additionally, be informed that every contractor is free to build its redundancy as they wish as long as the technical requirements are met. The Government emphasize again on the fact that redundancy is a minimum requirement under this solicitation. Refer to tables for both services

OpenNet-VPN and OpenNet- Extension CMR which specifically states that HSRP protocol is required. Indeed, our solicitation requires that the Standard of Performance (SP) for this contract be 99.7% percent availability per month and also having alternative line channels or backups in case of main Internet path malfunctioning. The Solicitation does not specify that level of redundancy. Accordingly, all acceptable offers will be reviewed using FAR 13 comparative evaluation process as described in section 4. Therefore, offerors are advised to carefully review section 4 with scrutiny.

8- With regard to redundancy, if disruption is caused by an incident occurring on the embassy side, who will be held responsible for the unavailability of internet connectivity?

In such situations, the contractor shall not be held responsible.

Please refer to “II. General” in paragraph “3. Exceptions to Cumulating of Downtime” under

“U. Circuit Downtime and Credits”. See below reference from II. General.

3. Exceptions to Cumulating of Downtime

Cumulating of circuit downtime shall include all unscheduled downtime deemed to be the responsibility of the Contractor, with the following exceptions:

a. When the failure to perform arises out of causes beyond the control and without the fault or negligence of the Contractor or Sub-contractor as defined in the Termination for Default clause in Section I of this contract.

9- Standard of Performance (SP) for this contract be 99.7% percent availability per month. What if this is caused by natural disasters or Government’s action like we saw during past elections?

Please refer to response to question 8.

10- How can we see the different sites?

A site visit was organized and included as part of the pre-proposal conference for all attendees.

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11- With regard to the offer, are we quoting for an FTTB or an FTTH?

Kindly review the information contained in all Pricing tables of “Section 1”, in “2. Prices”.

12- With regard to the SP, what if the interruption cannot be resolved within 2 hours due to a major issue which in turn would require a considerable amount of time to fix the connection, what shall we do?

There are exceptions when the failure to perform arises out of causes beyond the control and without the fault or negligence of the Contractor or Sub-contractor. The Contracting Officer will consider all factors in such instances and make the final determination as to whether downtime is the responsibility of the Contractor.

Please refer to “II. General” in paragraph “3. Exceptions to Cumulating of Downtime” under

“U. Circuit Downtime and Credits”.

13- Your solicitation requires that the SP for this contract be 99.7% percent availability per month. ISP shall provide dedicated (not shared or bundled) Internet

Bandwidth, 24/7, and finally shall warrant service support on site if necessary 7 X

24 X 365. What do you expect from us if unavailability is caused by the

Government of Gabon action? We would like to stress here that, sometimes, we do not get the information ahead of time and even, at times, we are not aware of the interruption and discover it along with the customer.

In such situations, the contractor may not be held responsible. Please refer to the response to question 12.

Please note that while such actions/acts by the Government are beyond the control of the contractor, the Government expects the same level of communication described in paragraph “5.

Trouble Escalation Procedure” of “II. General”. Indeed, in such case, the name of the carrier test person, as mentioned in the latter paragraph would be the name of the individual from the Local

Government Agency in charge of Telecommunication Regulation. As stated in “E.” of “II.

General”, “The Department of State will file a request with the National Communications System

(NCS) for the assignment of a restoration priority immediately upon acceptance and activation of this circuit.”

We expect good communication throughout the period of performance of this contract.

This involves all aspects described in paragraph “Service Support and Contingencies” contained in “I. Scope of Work”.

14- Do we provide one offer or are we splitting offers based on the different locations?

This is not a multi-award contract. Please refer to the answer to question 1.

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15- How is the downtime credit billed?

Downtime credit shall be equal to the hourly or daily rate (as applicable) as identified in the schedule in Section B. Please refer to “II. General”, paragraphs 1. Definitions and 2. Credit for

Circuit Downtime by Situation in “U. Credit Downtime and Credits”.

16- Concerning the monthly Circuit Availability Acceptance Level, how is the downtime calculated?

Downtime shall commence at the time first attempt for contact is made by the Government to the

Contractor and shall continue until the circuit is returned into Service by the Government. Then, the total number of creditable hours shall be accumulated for the month. Please refer to “U.

Circuit Downtime and Credits” in “II. General” for more details.

17- Will the Government also launch a solicitation for Back-up Services?

The Government is considering a solicitation for back up services in the future.

18- Could you explain how to apply the tax of 2%?

For all contracts held by a foreign entity and having a total dollar value equal or above $250,000, the US Government imposes a 2% tax under 26 U.S.C. 5000C. This is commonly known as the

James Zadroga Act. Please note that taxes imposed under 26 U.S.C. 5000C may not be included in the contractor price nor reimbursed to the Contractor by the U.S. Government. As noted in

FAR 52.229-12, (d) shown in full text in the Solicitation, « The Government will withhold a full 2 percent of each payment unless the Contractor claims an exemption. »

19- This will be difficult to implement in accounting system. For instance, if we issue an invoice of 102%, for our accounting system, the amount on the invoice is 100%.

When you will make the payment of 98%, it is equally going to be reflected as 98% in our accounting system.

The tax and procedure for collection is mandatory. The contractor is responsible for their internal financial procedures.

20- Shall the fiber be at the entry and exit of the router?

Yes, fiber optic connectivity is a minimum requirement. As stated in the “Internet Service

Quality”, Contractor must provide Fiber Optic connectivity to the very end at the U.S.

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Embassy/Consulate Libreville compound Telecommunications Service Entrance Facilities

(TSEF) Room.

21- How does it work for access within the embassy for service support?

Access is coordinated with the Contracting Officer Representative (COR). Access to residences would require a minimum 24- hour notice, depending on the situation and as determined by the

Contracting Officer. Entry into the TSEF Room may be acceptable with same day contact as coordinated with the COR. See A0003 for updates related to this answer.

22- When is the offer due date?

The offer due date is December 20, 2023, at 10:00 a.m. No quotations will be accepted after this time. Proposals must be in English and incomplete proposals will not be accepted. See A0003 for updates related to this answer.

Your quotation must be submitted electronically to LibreContracting@state.gov.

Please refer to the cover letter provided with this solicitation.

23- As far as the delivery is concerned, in terms of compatibility with SFI, could we have more details.

Please provide LC Connectors. Refer to “I. Scope of Work” in paragraph 3 of “Internet Service

Quality”: “ISP interface connectors: LC fiber connector (MM-multimode) – Gigabit interface.

Internet Service Provider (ISP) must provide all data media converters or transmission devices in all cases.”

24- We would like clarification on the following points: Can the delivery of “OpenNet-

VPN” and “DIN – Embassy – Agencies” at the United States Embassy in Libreville be done on the same CPE equipment via 2 separate ports or would you like the delivery to be made on different CPEs?

The advantages of delivering to the same CPE is that the connection is made only once (fiber optic cables are pulled only once).

Please provide separate CPE for each link. See A0003 for updates related to this answer.

25- For the FTTH Fiber services, when the desired speed is not available in the catalog, can we offer to provide through several boxes?

Yes, if your design combines the speed of all the ‘boxes’ into one. See A0003 for updates related to this answer.

mailto:LibreContracting@state.gov

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26- Who is responsible to complete the SAM registration, is it the vendor or the U.S.

Embassy?

Please note that this is entirely the responsibility of each company to complete their registration.

Please visit www.sam.gov for that purpose. As a reminder, all companies who wish to conduct business with the US Government must be SAM registered at time of proposal submission and remain registered for the entire Period of Performance of all contracts they hold. Therefore, it is in the best of the company to always be registered even if they do not currently hold a contract or their contract has recently ended. SAM registration requires an annual renewal.

During the Conference we explained that we could provide minimal assistance, if needed for the

SAM registration. The assistance is presented below:

Please note that registration is free. It is true that there are some websites/companies offering their services for the registration, but the Government is not responsible or part of these operations and does not interact with any such entities on behalf of the Contractor.

SAM Guidance:

FSD website has SAM instructions:

(https://www.fsd.gov/gsafsd_sp?id=kb_article_view&sysparm_article=KB0039524&sys_kb_id=

75f44c091b4dfd142fe5ed7ae54bcbc2&spa=1 )

SAM registration is completed, generally, as shown in the three steps described below:

Step 1 – Get an NCAGE Code

• An NCAGE is required for all foreign entities otherwise the registration will be considered incomplete.

• The vendor can submit their request for an NCAGE Code by going to the NATO Support

Activity (NSPA) NCAGE Request Tool at https://eportal.nspa.nato.int/AC135Public/scage/CageList.aspx

• After the vendor requests the NCAGE code, the vendor will have to search BINCS to see if their information has been received.

• Some countries may take several weeks for the information to be sent to BINCS. We noted that for Gabon, it takes 48 to 72 hours.

• Once the information has been received by BINCS the vendor can now start the registration process for SAM

• Please note that the legal business name and physical address MUST be exactly the same in all systems: NCAGE and SAM.

http://www.sam.gov/ https://www.fsd.gov/gsafsd_sp?id=kb_article_view&sysparm_article=KB0039524&sys_kb_id=75f44c091b4dfd142fe5ed7ae54bcbc2&spa=1 https://www.fsd.gov/gsafsd_sp?id=kb_article_view&sysparm_article=KB0039524&sys_kb_id=75f44c091b4dfd142fe5ed7ae54bcbc2&spa=1 https://eportal.nspa.nato.int/AC135Public/scage/CageList.aspx

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• The address has to be a street address containing no special characters.

• We advise that you copy and paste the information from one system to the other one.

The best practice is to copy all your information on a Word document and simply paste it in the different systems.

Step 2 – Get a Unique Entity Identification Number (UEI)

• Before a company can register in SAM, the vendor must also get a UEI Number. Please visit www.sam.gov for that purpose.

Step 3 – Register in SAM

• To start your registration log back to www.sam.gov .

• You need to have all the necessary information regarding your company (number of employees, your average income, key contact for SAM, etc.…).

• SAM imports the NCAGE information and compares it. If the information is not exactly the same, the vendor will not be able to register in SAM.

http://www.sam.gov/ http://www.sam.gov/