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COMMERCE BUSINESS DAILY ISSUE OF AUGUST 31,1998 PSA#2170U.S. Information Agency, International Broadcasting Bureau, Office of
Personnel and Administration, Contracts and Procurement Division,
B/PA/AC, Room 1645, 330 Independence Ave., S.W., Washington, DC 20547 B -- AUDIENCE SURVEY OF URBAN MOROCCO SOL n/a POC Contact
Point/Contracting Officer: Gloria Sweetney, Telephone, (202) 619-1623;
Facsimile: (202) 205-1921. This public notice is also a written
Request for Quotation (RFQ) No. B/PA-98-37 pursuant to procurement of
the required services as described below using the "Simplified
Acquisition Procedures" specified in Part 13 of the Federal Acquisition
Regulation (FAR). Price quotations submitted in response to this RFQ
that exceed the Simplified Acquisition Threshold (as specified in FAR
Subpart 2.101, Definitions) will not be considered as responsive to
this RFQ. The U.S. Information Agency's International Bureau of
Broadcasting (USIA/IBB) has a requirement, subject to the availability
of funds, for a contractor to obtain quantitative data on the size,
composition, and media habits of the audience for Voice of America
(VOA) broadcasts in urban Morocco. Quoters are herein requested to
submit written price quotations and technical capabilities/experience
information for conducting an urban audience survey as outlined below.
SECTION A: SURVEY REQUIREMENTS 1) Nature of Survey. Audience data
shall be obtained through a survey of urban areas of Morocco that is
designed to obtain the most accurate possible information about: the
number of regular (i.e., weekly) and occasional listeners to VOA's
broadcasts; the demographic characteristics and geographical
distribution of the audience; the size of the regular and occasional
listening audience for other international and domestic broadcasters;
and general patterns of media use. The interviews will be face-to-face,
and they will be conducted in the home of the respondent by a trained
interviewer. VOA will require demographic information on each
respondent, including: gender, age, native language, education,
occupation, and area of residence. 2) General Responsibilities of the
Contractor. The contractor shall be responsible for the project design,
translation, formatting, pretesting, adaptation, and printing of the
IBB supplied questionnaires; developing the Sampling Plan; training
interviewers; supervising fieldwork; reviewing/editing and encoding
survey responses; entering and processing the survey data; ascertaining
the representativeness of the samples and weighting the data and, if
necessary; preparing cross-tabulations in data-books; submitting data
on diskettes; and communicating all necessary audience survey
information and results to the Contracting Officer in a timely manner.
3) Sample Design. Interested quoters are herein requested to submit
price quotations for a sample of 1,500 adults, age 15 or older,
representative by, gender, age, and education of the population of the
following four cities: Casablanca, Rabat, Marrakesh, Meknes, and Fez.
Approximately half of the interviews shall be carried out in
Casablanca, with the remainder divided between the other cities. The
precise sample allocation shall be subject to agreement between IBB and
the contractor. Weights shall be derived and applied to the data by the
contractor in order to adjust for this disproportionate sample
allocation (in addition to any other post-stratification weights
employed to bring the sample into conformity with the demographic
characteristics of the population covered). The contractor shall be
responsible for obtaining the most accurate available information about
the population of the sample universe in order to develop an
appropriate weighting scheme. If, in the professional judgement of the
quoter, certain cities listed herein cannot be surveyed for logistical
or other reasons, the quoter's price quotation shall so state this
situation, providing the Contracting Officer with the specific reasons
for the proposed exclusion of these cities, and the quoter's written
estimate of the size of the population that would be excluded from the
survey. A detailed "Sampling Plan," including stratification criteria,
description of the sampling frame, procedures for selecting households,
and procedures for selecting individual respondents at the household
level, shall be submitted to and approved by the Contracting Officer
prior to the commencement of any fieldwork. The Sampling Plan shall
also include a description of the training and instructions to be
provided to the fieldwork team. 4) Questionnaire. The Contracting
Officer will supply a set of questions prepared by IBB for an interview
of approximately 45 minutes, consisting of approximately 70 questions
in English, up to 5 of which may be open-ended questions. This
questionnaire will be provided to the contractor in draft form for
suggestions and comments, based on the contractor's knowledge of local
cultural and/or political sensitivities. Following receipt of the
contractor's comments, IBB will finalize the text of the questionnaire
for translation by the contractor into Arabic and any other vernacular
languages that are agreed upon by the contractor and IBB as being
necessary for the successful completion of the survey. The contractor
shall prepare an Arabic translation of the questionnaire and shall
submit this translation to the Contracting Officer for his/her approval
prior to the contractor's conducting a pretest. The contractor shall be
responsible for compiling a comprehensive list of both local and
international broadcast media available in the local environment in the
areas to be surveyed. This information will be used to compile a
precoded list of stations on the survey and shall be submitted to the
Contracting Officer for approval prior to finalization of the
questionnaire. Following IBB's review of any contractor comments and
the Contracting Officer's final approval of the translation of the
questionnaire, the contractor shall prepare final versions of the
questionnaire in Arabic and any other language as agreed to in a form
suitable for use by interviewers. 5) Pretest. The questionnaire shall
be pretested by the contractor prior to the commencement of the
fieldwork. At least 25 pretest interviews shall be conducted by the
contractor. The contractor shall provide the Contracting Officer with
a written report of the results of the pretest, along with details of
any problems encountered and any suggested remedies, prior to
commencement of any fieldwork. 6) Fieldwork. Interviews shall be
conducted by experienced field workers who shall be thoroughly briefed
by the contractor prior to commencement of any fieldwork. The
contractor shall ensure that interviewers are thoroughly familiar with
household and respondent selection procedures, call-back procedures,
and the structure of the questionnaire, including routing and
filtering. Interviewer training shall include practice sessions in
administering the questionnaire. A minimum of 10% of the interviews
shall be back-checked, and 5% of the interviews shall be accompanied by
a team supervisor. Quoter's responses to the RFQ shall include a
description of the professional qualifications of all proposed
interviewers, and a description of the specific training that shall be
provided to interviewers to ensure their proper understanding of the
survey instrument. 7) Data Processing. The contractor is responsible
for data-entry, cleaning/editing, and processing of survey data. The
contractor shall provide printed tabulations of survey results,
including percentage responses to all questions broken down by gender,
age-group, education level, and urban/rural status. Tabulations shall
show the weighted and unweighted base for each question. The
contractor shall supply data to the Contracting Officer as an SPSS
portable (*.por) or SPSS for Windows (*.sav -- Version 6.1 or lower)
file with a complete data-dictionary of variable names. The contractor
shall also supply raw data on computer diskettes in ASCII fixed format
with an accompanying codebook identifying the locations of all
variables and the coding scheme. There shall be one data-record for
each respondent, and the records shall be of fixed length. If weights
are used, weighting factors shall be in the same position on each
record, with their location specified in the codebook. Each record
shall include a unique respondent ID number, interviewer ID number, PSU
ID number, and codes for the precise location and date of each
interview. Each record shall include demographic information about the
respondent, including: gender, exact age, education level, occupation,
and ethnicity. In addition to exact age, the record for each respondent
shall be coded by age-group as follows: 15-24; 25-39; 40+. This coding
scheme shall be the age categories used in the printed tabulations
stated above. 8) Technical Appendix. When delivering printed
tabulations and raw data, the contractor shall provide a "Technical
Appendix", which shall include the following items: -- A complete
Sampling Plan, including lists and maps of PSUs, individual sampling
points, and the number of interviews conducted at each sampling point;
-- Details of response rates; -- Interviewer instructions; -- A brief
report on survey operations, including any practical difficulties
encountered by the contractor in conducting the survey; -- The
estimated sampling error; -- The weighting scheme, including details of
how weighting factors were developed and applied by the contractor, as
well as the demographic data on which the weights were based. 9)
Summary of Deliverables. See the preceding paragraphs for detailed
descriptions of specific requirements for each contract Deliverable.
The four Deliverables to be provided to the Contracting Officer by the
contractor under this contract are as follows: a. Raw data from the
survey compiled on computer diskettes. b. A complete data-set of all
survey responses formatted as a SPSS file. c. Printed tabulations of
all survey results. d. A Technical Appendix per Subsection A.8. 10)
Delivery Schedule. The contractor shall perform the work under this
contract in accordance with the following Delivery Schedule: a.
Provision of the detailed Sampling Plan to the Contracting Officer
within 2 weeks of the contractor's receipt of confirmation of contract
award. b. Submission of the translated questionnaires within 2 weeks
following the contractor's receipt of IBB's draft questionnaire. c.
Pretesting to be completed and a Pretest Report submitted to the
Contracting Officer by the contractor within 2 weeks of the Contracting
Officer's approval of the questionnaire translations. d. After
pretesting and the Contracting Officer's approval of contractor's
Pretest Report, interviewing fieldwork shall begin within 2 weeks and
shall be completed by the contractor within an additional 8 weeks. e.
Cleaned/edited, verified, processed data, and the Technical Appendix
shall be delivered to the Contracting Officer not later than 6 weeks
after conclusion of all fieldwork (See Subsections A.6, Fieldwork and
A.8, Technical Appendix). SECTION B: SUBMISSION OF RESPONSES TO THE RFQ
(i.e., PRICE QUOTATIONS AND TECHNICAL INFORMATION) In the event that
all price quotations for the work specified in this RFQ significantly
exceed IBB's budget, IBB reserves the right to reduce the scope of work
specified herein. This IBB action could include reduction in the
overall sample size and/or restriction of the geographical universe
covered during the survey. Each quoter's response to this RFQ shall
include sufficient quantitative/qualitative information on the
following technical items to enable IBB to objectively evaluate the
quoter's capabilities/experience to successfully perform the work
specified in above Section A of this RFQ: a. A detailed description of
the proposed research methodology to be used by the quoter for this
work, including a specific listing of organizations the quoter shall
use for performing fieldwork (if subcontractors are to be used by the
contractor); b. Current information on the qualifications of the
quoter's office and field staff who will participate in performing the
work specified in above Section A of this RFQ; c. Specific information
on the quoter's past experience in conducting media research and survey
research in Morocco and/or other North Africa countries; d. A detailed
description of the proposed fieldwork plan, including the quoter's
proposed "Sampling Plan" and sampling procedures, the number and type
of sampling points, and the manner in which interviews shall be
allocated across the population of the region covered in the survey;
and e. A schedule showing the time required for each phase of the
project, consistent with the "Delivery Schedule" specified in above
Subsection A.10. SECTION C: SPECIFIC TIMETABLE Upon contract award, the
Contracting Officer will provide the contractor with a specific
"Timetable", including the contractor's Delivery Schedule prepared in
accordance with above Subsection A.10, for the contractor's use in
completing all phases of the work; as agreed to between the Contracting
Officer and the contractor; and also including the exact dates when
each portion of the work shall be completed. This Timetable will be
based on the schedule submitted by the contractor (as specified at Item
e. of above Section B) with its price quotation, with any modifications
to this Timetable being mutually agreed upon by the contractor and the
Contracting Officer. If delays in the work are required due to
circumstances beyond the contractor's control, the reasons and
anticipated length of such delays shall be immediately reported to the
Contracting Officer in writing. Unless written approval is granted by
the Contracting Officer, all Deliverables shall be received by the
Contracting Officer by the dates specified in the Timetable. SECTION D:
SELECTION CRITERIA A contract (i.e., Purchase Order) award will be made
by the Contracting Officer based on: A) the quoter's Technical
Capabilities/Experience (for which there are five (5) equally weighted
subcriteria); and B) the quoter's Price quotation. Of the two
Selection Criteria, Technical Capabilities/Experience is the
significantly dominant criterion over the Price criterion. The
Technical Capabilities/Experience subcriteria are as follows: 1.
Demonstrated experience in conducting quantitative research on
broadcast media. 2. Demonstrated experience in conducting research in
Morocco or other North African countries. 3. Quality of the proposed
sampling technique. 4. Quality of the proposed procedures for data
collection, entry, and verification. 5. Ability to complete the project
in a timely manner by complying with Subsection A.10, Delivery
Schedule. Each response to this RFQ shall also include a schedule
showing the key project milestone dates (i.e., project start-date;
completion date; dates of key events within a project activity;
beginning/ending dates, etc.). In addition to specifically addressing
the above-stated technical items, a quoter's response to this RFQ shall
also provide technical details on any proposed subcontractors who would
be engaged to work on this project. Omission of any of the information
requested in above Section B pertaining to the quoter and/or any
subcontractors proposed by the quoter in performing this contract, will
weigh against the quoter during the Contracting Officer's evaluation of
the quoter's response to this RFQ. Firms interested in the above
described work are requested to submit their responses to this RFQ
(i.e., Technical Capabilities/Experience and Schedule information, and
Price quotation) by the close of business (5 p.m. EST), Friday,
September 11, 1998, and they shall reference this RFQ No. B/PA-98-37 in
their transmittal letter to the Contracting Officer. All questions
(technical or otherwise) by a prospective quoter regarding this RFQ
shall be in writing. Any questions and the quoter's complete written
response to this RFQ shall be sent directly and only to the Contracting
Officer for this procurement, Ms. Gloria Sweetney, via facsimile at
(202) 205-1921. The Price quotation submitted as part of a quoter's
response to this RFQ shall be on a separate page from the
above-requested Technical Capabilities/Experience and Schedule
information. In addition to the quoter's proposed Total Contract Price,
the quoter's Price quotation shall be further broken down into the
following component prices: a) preparation work; b) fieldwork; c) data
processing; d) report preparation; and e) miscellaneous. The
Contracting Officer has found and determined that this proposed work is
appropriate for an "unrestricted" procurement pursuant to FAR Subpart
19.502 (Setting Aside Acquisitions). All responsible sources may submit
a quotation which will be considered. Posted 08/27/98 (W-SN242764).
(0239) Loren Data Corp. http://www.ld.com (SYN# 0012 19980831\B-0003.SOL)
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