preproposal_meeting_2014.docx

March 20, 2014 Minutes of the Pre-Proposal Conference held on March 10, 2014 Present: Paul Stenseth (Contracting Officer), Mubanga Chileshe, Ethel Mwanaumo, Michael Schiott, Scott Branks, representatives from USAID, CDC, Airtel, MTN and ZAMTEL Introduction

The Contracting Officer welcomed all attendees and introduced the Embassy staff.

Discussion of the Solicitation Package

The following sections of the solicitation were highlighted:

1. The Contracting Officer went through the objectives of the solicitation, emphasized the need for the interested contractors to pay attention to the clause relating to trafficking in persons.

2. He also reiterated the need for the vendors to provide all the required documentation which included permits and housing details if any for companies that employed third country nationals.

3. The Contractors were also taken through the SF 1449, emphasizing that they submit pricing for both years as required by the solicitation.

4. Contractors were also encouraged to state their roaming partners.

5. The bidders were encouraged to submit any questions to the Contracting Officer via emailing to: Lusaka-GSO-Contracts@state.gov . Phone call were discouraged to ensure that all questions and answers were properly documented.

6. Due to the current requirement by the Zambia Information and Communication Technology Authority (ZICTA) to register all SIM cards, the vendors are required, if awarded the contract, to make arrangements for the registration of SIM cards on behalf of the Embassy as an entity (see 1.4.26 of the solicitation).

7. The Solicitation has separate requirements for USAID, State and CDC. Contractors were encouraged to pay attention to this since there were some differences in the requirements by the three agencies.

8. Contractors were reminded of the need to submit their proposals in ink and to make sure their proposed prices are summed up in totals.

9. Once in a while, the contractor will be required to provide the Embassy some temporary phones. These are priced separately in the solicitation.

Questions:

The attached questions were asked during the meeting, no written questions were received by the deadline of March 19, 2014 as set in the meeting:

1. Are you specific to what type of I-phones you would like the contractor to provide?

Answer – The mandated ones are 5C and 5S right now. If this changes, you will be informed in good time.

2. Do you require 100 I-phones?

Answer – This is the current requirement. Please note that these are estimates. While we will not go beyond the contract maximum per year, we might request more as long as we remain within the stipulated contract maximum.

3. Since you are brand specific, will you also require a specific capacity for the I-phones?

Answer – The capacity required is 64 GB which is top of the range. The contractor will be required to adapt as technology changes. The requirements for the dongles are in the solicitation on page 10, paragraph 1.3.12. These should be 2GB recurring every month.

Conclusion

The meeting concluded and attendees were thanked for their presence and expression of interest in working with the U.S. Government. The meeting ended at 12:00 hours.