SPECIAL NOTICE
99 -- Request for Information - System for Award Management (SAM) Registration Support for Non-U.S. Recipients
- Notice Date
- 6/10/2022 3:38:12 PM
- Notice Type
- Special Notice
- NAICS
- 541611
— Administrative Management and General Management Consulting Services
- Contracting Office
- OFFICE OF ACQUISITION Washington DC 20527 USA
- ZIP Code
- 20527
- Solicitation Number
- RFI_SAM_Non-US
- Response Due
- 6/17/2022 1:00:00 PM
- Point of Contact
- Samuel Dustin, Phone: +1 202 779 5584
- E-Mail Address
-
samuel.dustin@dfc.gov
(samuel.dustin@dfc.gov)
- Description
- Request for Information � System for Award Management Registration Support for Non-U.S. Recipients Background The U.S. International Development Finance Corporation (DFC) is a federal financial assistance provider that offers debt, equity, political risk insurance and grant/technical assistance types of support to developmentally impactful projects/clients in more than 150 countries. As of April 4, 2022, all of DFC�s transactions are subject to the requirement that the recipients of its support (awardees) obtain a Unique Entity ID (UEI) and complete the registration for federal financial assistance awardees using the System for Award Management (SAM) website, www.sam.gov. Many recipients of DFC support are located outside of the United States and are not U.S. companies, and therefore subject to the requirement to obtain a NATO Commercial and Government Entity (NCAGE) code from the NATO Support and Procurement Agency (NSPA) before they can obtain the UEI and complete the SAM registration process. Many of DFC�s non-U.S. recipients have difficulty completing the complex administrative and technical process involved with obtaining an NCAGE code, UEI and completing the SAM.gov registration process.� To better support these recipients, DFC is seeking Contractor(s) able to provide DFC�s international recipients with comprehensive, on-demand SAM.gov registration support services for a fixed fee per client. DFC anticipates that this will be a �no-cost� contract and that the agreed upon fixed fee will be billed to the client directly by the selected Contractor(s). Contracting Office Point of Contact Contracting Officer: Samuel Dustin Email: samuel.dustin@dfc.gov Phone: (202) 948-4683 Solicitation Venue and NAICs Code DFC is contemplating soliciting this requirement on an open-market basis as a no-cost contract. The anticipated NAICS code is 541611 � Administrative Management and General Management Consulting Services, with a size standard of $21.5M. Scope of Work Selected Contractor(s) will work directly with DFC�s non-U.S. recipients to obtain a UEI and achieve a SAM status of �Active Registration�. Achieving �Active Registration� status for a DFC recipient may include (but is not necessarily limited to) some or all of the following steps shown below. 1. Obtain the following data from the DFC recipient: Certificates of incorporation / registration documents Entity�Legal Name (as listed on incorporation / registration documents) Entity Complete Current Address, including postal code (as listed on recent official documentation such as tax documentation)� Date of Incorporation (mm/dd/yyyy)� Country of Incorporation� For non-U.S. companies, local identification number (e.g., corporate registration number, tax registration number, SWIFT code (banks), etc.) Company fiscal year end date (mm/dd) North American Industrial Classification System (NAICS) code(s) Name, address, and telephone numbers for company Point of Contact (POC) required by SAM Name, title, address, and telephone number of company official who will sign the Entity Administrator notarized letter If Contractor is assisting DFC recipient with setting up an employee of the Recipient as the ongoing Entity Administrator, will also require the following: Name of Entity Administrator Email address of Entity Administrator Mobile phone number of Entity Administrator 2. Complete the steps required to ensure that the DFC recipient entity obtains an active registration in SAM.gov including: Researching what information, if any, for that entity is stored in the SAM Entity Validation Service (EVS) database Requesting the addition or amendment of entity information in the EVS if information on the entity is missing or inaccurate Search to see if the entity already has an NCAGE code, and if it does not, request an NCAGE code using the validated SAM.gov entity information Complete the SAM.gov registration for U.S. federal financial assistance awards for the entity Help the client set up a Login.gov account and SAM.gov Entity Administrator role for their designated Entity Administrator (if the client has not chosen the option to have the Contractor act as their Entity Administrator) �Instruct the client on how to prepare and obtain notarization of their Entity Administrator appointment/confirmation letter Upload notarized letters to the Federal Service Desk 3.� Assist recipient with any follow-on tasks that may be necessary to achieve Active Registration status.� This and any other task in SAM.gov as listed above may require the submission of one or more Incidents to the Federal Service Desk. 4.� Provide a comprehensive monthly report to DFC for each recipient being assisted which includes: Names and contact information of recipient(s) being assisted Status of the SAM registration process for the recipient Detailed information on any issues encountered while completing the process and the steps taken to resolve the problem Length of time required to complete the process, from receipt of request through achievement of obtaining a UEI for recipient and obtaining a SAM status of �Active Registration. Process for Registering Non-U.S. Entities Create Login.gov credentials (Process Guide Attached) Login.gov allows an individual person to create login credentials (email, password, and 2nd factor authentication method) that they can use to sign into multiple U.S. government websites such as SAM.gov and the Federal Service Desk (FSD.gov). The person who will be acting as the Entity Administrator is the one who should create these login credentials. Pre-Validation Check in SAM.gov (process guide attached) SAM.gov will ultimately reject any registration where the entity name and address data entered in NCAGE (see below) does not exactly match the data that SAM.gov has in its entity validation database (EVS).� It is critical to check the SAM.gov database first and submit a request to correct any incomplete or out-of-date information NCAGE (process guide attached) All entities must obtain a Commercial and Government Entity (CAGE) code. Non-U.S. entities request their CAGE code from NATO, so it is called an �NCAGE� code. Data entered NCAGE must exactly match data found in SAM.gov. It usually takes 2-10 days to receive the NCAGE code, and then another 3-4 days for the data to transfer from NATO databases to U.S. government databases. UEI and SAM.gov Registration (process guide attached) Though it is possible to request a Unique Entity ID without doing the full SAM.gov registration, DFC�s recipients are required to complete the full registration. Since the registration involves multiple steps/screens, it is ok to save work in progress and come back to complete it in another session. Notarized Letter (process guide attached) The notarized letter appointing the Entity Administrator must be submitted to the Federal Service Desk within 60 days after the SAM.gov registration is submitted. Though the letter itself is simple, obtaining notarization may not be easy/quick in some countries, so please start promptly after submitting the registration Required Skills and Attributes of Contractor Strong customer service orientation Comprehensive knowledge of and experience with processing SAM.gov registrations for U.S. and non-U.S. registrants, including ensuring that NCAGE and SAM.gov data syncs for non-U.S. registrants Experience communicating with Federal Service Desk (FSD) to resolve SAM.gov registration issues Comfort and patience working with recipients in developing countries worldwide, and an understanding of the issues faced by recipients which may include (but are not limited to): Sporadic access to the Internet and potentially limited bandwidth Difficulty accessing notaries and obtaining required documents needed to complete the process Discomfort dealing with government agencies Ability to provide service in multiple languages (Spanish and French) in addition to English is a plus Flexibility in working across multiple time zones to assist clients located in developing countries worldwide Outstanding attention to detail and recordkeeping capabilities Able to observe, document, and react to changes in the SAM registration process for purposes of streamlining future registrations and providing feedback to government agencies upon request Examples of Common Issues Encountered by DFC Recipients FSD Incident Responses received by DFC clients appear to be completely automated with a variety of prepackaged notices and tips pasted together without evidence of human review.� The information provided is already easily found on the SAM or FSD websites and often does not resolve the issues� Incidents are often automatically closed even though the issue has not been resolved.� FSD personnel contacted by phone are unable to search for incidents associated with a particular Entity/UEI. If the caller is unable to provide an Incident Number, FSD is unable to look up the ticket. FSD phone lines may be extremely busy, and it is difficult to receive correct/timely information and technical issues are often encountered. The system sometimes calls people back and hangs up on them Personnel reached by phone often do not understand the process for non-U.S. entities and may have difficulty understanding the differences between U.S. address format and international address formats Many incident responses tell recipients that their NCAGE data is incorrect and directs them to call Defense Logistics Agency (DLA) for resolution. DLA is usually unable to help these recipients and state that the problem is related to SAM rather than DLA. The NCAGE data is often correct, and it is the SAM EVS data that needs to be corrected. FSD personnel reviewing notarized letters don�t appear to have the knowledge of corporate governance structures necessary to know when letters from many different types of entities have been validly executed. FSD personnel may not ask questions or follow up before simply rejecting the notarized letter. Request Interested contractors are requested to provide documentation outlining possible technical approach(es), capabilities, critical cost/schedule drivers related to the above-mentioned tasks, and any other considerations to the requirement that DFC does not appear to have contemplated. Submission Details Responses should not exceed 10 pages and must include: Business name and address Name of company representative, their business title, and contract information Type of Business (Small/Large) UEI and Cage Code Detailed information outlining possible technical approach(es), capabilities, critical cost/schedule drivers related to the above-mentioned tasks, and any other considerations to the requirement that DFC does not appear to have contemplated. Responses are due no later than 4:00 pm EDT on Friday, June 17th, 2022. Responses should be emailed to the Contracting Officer, Samuel Dustin at samuel.dustin@dfc.gov. Questions can be sent via email contact above at any time prior to the submission deadline. Disclaimer: This request for information is for informational purposes only. This is not a request for quote. It does not constitute a solicitation and shall not be construed as a commitment by DFC. Responses in any form are not offers and the Government is under no obligated to award a contract because of this announcement. No funds are available to pay for preparation of response to this announcement. Any information submitted by respondents is strictly voluntary. Proprietary information and trade secrets, if any, must be clearly marked on all materials. All information received that is marked Proprietary will be handled accordingly. Please be advised that all submissions are government property and will not be returned. The Government shall not be held liable for any damages incurred if proprietary information is not properly identified. Attachments � Process Guides for Registering Non-U.S. Entities Attachment 1: Process Guide - Creating Login.gov Credentials Attachment 2: Process Guide � Pre-Validation Check in SAM.gov Attachment 3: Process Guide �NCAGE Attachment 4: Process Guide � UEI and SAM.gov Registration Attachment 5: Process Guide � Notarized Letter
- Web Link
-
SAM.gov Permalink
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- Record
- SN06354374-F 20220612/220610230101 (samdaily.us)
- Source
-
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