SOURCES SOUGHT
R -- World-wide Vetting Support Services
- Notice Date
- 2/12/2016
- Notice Type
- Sources Sought
- NAICS
- 541930
— Translation and Interpretation Services
- Contracting Office
- Department of State, Office of Acquisitions, Acquisition Management, 1735 N. Lynn St., Arlington, Virginia, 22209, United States
- ZIP Code
- 22209
- Solicitation Number
- SAQMMA16RFIWWV
- Archive Date
- 3/15/2016
- Point of Contact
- Luis "Cisco" Kagalis,
- E-Mail Address
-
KagalisL@State.gov
(KagalisL@State.gov)
- Small Business Set-Aside
- N/A
- Description
- A. Introduction 1. This is a Request for Information (RFI) as outlined in FAR 15.201(c)(7). 2. This notice (RFI) is issued solely for information and planning purposes and does not constitute a Request for Proposal (RFP) or a commitment on the part of the Government to conduct a solicitation for the below-listed services in the future. 3. A decision not to submit a response to this RFI will not preclude a vendor from participating in any future solicitation. B. Purpose. 1. The purpose of this RFI is to accomplish market research pursuant to Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) Part 10, and to identify vendors capable of performing the functions described herein and to view methodologies that will provide desired outcomes. 2. Respondents are advised the Government will not pay for information submitted in response to this RFI, nor will it compensate respondents for any costs incurred in the development/furnishing of a response. 3. The Government will not entertain telephone calls or questions for this RFI. C. Background 1. The Department of State, Bureau of Diplomatic Security (DS) is requesting information regarding best practices and feasibility of deploying employment vetting support teams to all regions of the world, excluding Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan over the course of 5 years. Hence, the project shall be known as "World-wide Vetting (WWV)". 2. The mission of the Department of State (DOS), Bureau of Diplomatic Security (DS) is to shape and sustain a peaceful, prosperous, just, and democratic world, and foster conditions for stability and progress for the benefit of the American people and people everywhere. 3. The current method relies on the Regional Security Office of the US Embassy to provide final employment vetting and approval to ensure that all LES (Locally Engaged Staff) and contract personnel who require un-escorted access to DOS facilities overseas do not pose unacceptable risks to the safety and security of US Government personnel and property. 4. In order to adequately evaluate the potential options, DS requests the private sector to provide their thoughts and approaches that addresses the objectives, included in this document. The Respondent's approach shall include detailed explanations of its proposed methodology, to include cost efficiencies and realistic ways to accomplish the goals and objectives. D. Operational Approach 1. A WWV support team shall support Department of State polygraph examiners (either direct-hires, or Personal Service Respondents) with vetting LES and 3rd party contractors at the Department's overseas facilities. 2. A WWV support team shall consist of a a) regional linguist, translator/interpreter b) biometric/database collection specialist, c) field support technician, and d) badging office specialist; using Government provided equipment and software (details of the type of equipment, weight, etc., are not important at this time. Assume shipping shall be provided by the USG.) 3. All individuals shall require a SECRET Clearance. E. Example of Goals (Scenarios) A WWV support teams may encounter the following type of scenarios over the course of 5 years. For each, provide thoughts on the time to schedule, feasibility of obtaining skill sets, time needed to deploy team or acquire assets. 1) Deploy a WWV support team to support one (1) Department polygraph examiner in Tunis, Tunisia for thirty (30) days. Upon completion the examiner will move on to Malta with the biometric/database specialist, field support technician, and badging office specialist for two (2) weeks of vetting (Maltese speak English). The team will then arrive in Morocco for thirty (30) days and will join with two (2) additional Department polygraph examiners and their WWV support teams. Respondent shall need to ensure the proper regional linguist is provided for each leg. 2) Two (2) Department polygraph examiners will spend thirty (30) days in Uganda, then thirty (30) days in Kenya, and then thirty (30) days in Tanzania requiring support of: linguist, biometric/database specialist, field support technician, and badging office specialist in each country. Contractor shall need to ensure the proper regional linguist is provided for each leg. 3) A regional linguist on a sixty (60) day deployment to Cairo gets food poisoning the second week in country and must be evacuated back to the States. Contractor shall need to replace the regional linguist with 24 hours. 4) Three (3) Department polygraph examiners will spend thirty (30) days in Manila, Philippines; then thirty (30) days in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia; and then thirty (30) days in Jakarta, Indonesia requiring support of a regional linguists able to work in each country cited, a biometric/database specialist, field support technician, and badging office specialist (no language skill required for the bio-metrics, field support tech, or badging office specialist). Note 1. In each scenario given above, the region and country are interchangeable with any country that contains a US Embassy or consulate. The scenarios given may be concurrent, may partially overlap, or occur in series with 2 weeks between scenarios. Therefore, it needs to be understood that deployment team schedules may or may not be consecutive; or they may overlap, depending upon the mission. F. Responses and Assumptions 1. For submission purposes, the respondent shall assume that DS shall provide consultation to the respondent and the respondent shall not provide primary vetting (polygraph) services. 2. Given the sensitivity of these requirements, DS will not consider a simplistic list of proposed steps. Accordingly, the respondent should endeavor to be precise as possible as to the best way to accomplish this type of mission, considering the vast number of regional linguists required for such short deployments. 3. This effort is not to be considered as long term consecutive deployments, but instead, the respondent needs to view this requirement as short, quick deployments. 4.Respondents shall prepare their responses, using the scenarios and objectives given below: G. Objectives Objective 1: Provide regional linguistic support for each region that a DoS vetting specialist (polygrapher) is responsible for. Objective 2: Provide vetting support to achieve effective screening, specifically to seek out connections to adversarial groups (e.g., Terrorist, Insurgent, Foreign Intelligence, etc.). Objective 3: Provide vetting support to achieve effective screening, specifically to seek out that he/she does not represent a threat for other criminal activity: theft, fraud, sexual crimes, etc., which would pose an unacceptable risk to the safety of US Embassy personnel and property. Objective 4: Provide vetting support to achieve effective screening, specifically to seek out that they do not pose any other unacceptable risks to US EMBASSY personnel or property (e.g., uncontrollable contagious disease, etc.). Objective 5: Provide vetting support to re-assessment procedures. These DS procedures will ensure that all LES (locally engaged staff) receive periodic reviews, at the appropriate frequency, to determine whether or not an individual remains suitable for continued employment/performance under the contract. Objective 6: Under this system, all records, specifically bio-metrics, must be maintained electronically by the Respondent using Government provided equipment and software. The contents of the entire system must be reliable and the Respondent must be able to provide records within 8 hours of a DOS request. 1. Respondents should address the following: a) show how they will acquire regional linguists based on schedule or provide their window of how long it would take to secure a regional linguist. b) show how they will retain other team members (Bio-metrics tech, field support, badging, etc.). 2. Respondents should advise what is thought to be an unacceptable duration (not cost efficient or effective). For example, 1 deployment every three months may not make it worth the while. Conversely, respondents should advise the most cost effective or efficient schedule (1 deployment every 30 days). This may require the Government to devise a schedule for the Offeror to meet. 3. It would be responsibility of the Offeror to provide vetting support personnel under its control (employees, subcontractors, 1099, etc.).
- Web Link
-
FBO.gov Permalink
(https://www.fbo.gov/spg/State/A-LM-AQM/A-LM-AQM/SAQMMA16RFIWWV/listing.html)
- Place of Performance
- Address: Globally, excluding Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan, United States
- Record
- SN04019463-W 20160214/160212234424-a3750cff9d206b3bba1edc733de1b4aa (fbodaily.com)
- Source
-
FedBizOpps Link to This Notice
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