U.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 DATA ON MEDIA USE IN HAITI SOL B/PA-99-9 DUE 022699 POC Contract Point/Contracting Officer: Lesley D. Isaac Jr., Contracting Officer, Telephone: (202) 619-1623; Facsimile: (202) 205-1921 E-MAIL: Click here to contact the contracting officer via, lisaac@IBB.GOV. This public notice is also written request for Quotation (RFQ) No. B/PA-99-9 pursuant to procurement of the required services 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 United States Information Agency=s International Bureau of Broadcasting (USIA/IBB) has a requirement, subject to the availability of funds, for a contractor to obtain data on media habits among adults in several major Haitian cities, in particular on the size, composition, and media usage patterns of the audience for Voice of America (VOA) radio programming. Quoters are herein requested to submit written price quotations and technical capabilities/experience information for the collection of data as outlined below. Scope of Work: The contractor shall obtain data through a survey research instrument designed to obtain the most accurate possible information about: -- access to and use electronic media among respondents (radio, television, VCR, cable, satellite reception systems); -- the audience in the last year, month, week, and day for radio, and television broadcasts available in major Haitian cities; -- the regular usage patterns (yearly, monthly, weekly or daily) of the audience for radio and television broadcasts available in major Haitian cities; -- the previous-day hourly usage patterns among audiences for radio and television broadcasts available in major Haitian cities; -- the demographic characteristics of respondents (sex, exact age, educational level, occupation, place of residence, and language comprehension); -- awareness among respondents of international broadcasts available either directly or through local rebroadcast in major Haitian cities; -- audience opinions as to the accuracy, reliability, quality, and relevance ofprogramming from major radio and television broadcasters; IBB will provide the contractor with a set of approximately 80 questions in (English) for an interview of about one hour. In-person interviews shall be conducted in respondents' home by trained interviewers. The survey questionnaire shall be administered to samples representative by sex, age, and education of the adult population (15 years and older) of each city included in the research, as determined by the most accurate and up-to-date demographic data available. Only one person per household will participate in the survey, and no respondent shall have participated in other market or opinion research in the six months prior to the date of interview Quoters may submit quotations for this project on one or more of the following options, as to coverage of major cities in Haiti with the respective minimum achieved individual and overall sample sizes: 1. Option 1 = Port-au-Prince -- 750; Cap Haitien -- 250; Les Cayes -- 250; Jeremie -- 0; Port-de-Paix -- 0; St. Marc -- 0; Total = 1250 2. Option 2 = Port-au-Prince -- 750; Cap Haitien -- 250; Les Cayes -- 250; Jeremie -250; Port-de-Paix -- 0; St. Marc -- 0; Total = 1500 3. Option 3 = Port-au-Prince -- 1000; Cap Haitien -- 250; Les Cayes -- 250; Jeremie -- 250; Port-de-Paix -- 250; St. Marc -- 250;Total -- 2250 Contractor Responsibilities: The contractor shall be responsible for: -- compiling up-to-date, comprehensive media environment information (name, frequency/channel, cable/satellite availability, hours of availability, and format of the available radio and television broadcasts) in each of the major cities included in the survey; -- finalizing/revising Creole translation, formatting, pretesting, adapting (where necessary), and printing questionnaires based on IBB-supplied questions; -- compiling accurate and up-to-date demographic information on the populations of each of the major cities included in the survey and designing a sampling plan to achieve the required coverage and composition; -- training interviewers and supervising fieldwork, including verification of a percentage of questionnaires received (to be agreed upon by the contractor and IBB). -developing a coding scheme, entering data, checking and cleaning data for missing or conflicting responses that indicate erroneous information, ascertaining the representativeness of the achieved sample and (if necessary) developing weights to compensate for deviation from information known about the populations; -- creating a set of files that include the final questionnaire (in Creole and English, WordPerfect format if possible, or plain ASCII), codebook (WordPerfect or ASCII), and dataset (in SPSS format if possible, or in plain ASCII with information on column locations for each variable); -- creating an accurate codebook of the final dataset, detailing variable and value labels; -- preparing a brief (approx. 5 page) report summarizing the media environment data (listing station information by city) and detailing the methodology used and any special circumstances or issues that arose during fieldwork, supplied in hard copy and on disk (WordPerfect or ASCII). Delivery Schedule: Within 2 weeks after contract award, the contractor will be given an English-language and draft creole questionnaire by IBB Research for revision, formatting and printing. Following IBB=s approval of the specific questionnaire, the contractor shall begin pretesting. The contractor shall immediately, upon contract award, begin compiling media environment information in order to incorporate all major broadcasters in the printed questionnaire and to train interviewers (e.g., knowing the unavailability of cable in a particular area would alert interviewers to erroneous survey responses). After pretesting and IBB=s approval of the final questionnaire, the contractor shall begin interviewing within 2-3 weeks and be completed within an additional 5 weeks. Cleaned, verified data and a final report must be delivered to IBB no later than 4 weeks after conclusion of the fieldwork. 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 survey research on broadcast media; 2. Demonstrated experience in conducting survey research in Haiti and other countries in the region; 3. Quality of the proposed sampling technique; and 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 the Delivery Schedule in this RFQ. Each quoter=s response to this RFQ shall include sufficient information on th following technical items to enable the Government to objectively evaluate the quoter=s capabilities/experience to successfully perform the work specified in the above statement of work of this RFQ: a. A detailed description of the proposed research methodology, including specific listing of organizations the contractor shall use for performing fieldwork; b. Current information on the qualifications of quoter=s office and field staff; c. Specific information on quoter=s past experience in conducting media research and survey research in Haiti; d. A detailed description of the proposed fieldwork plan, including the contractor=s proposal 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 cities included in the survey; and e. A schedule showing the time required for each phase of the project: (1) translation, pretest, reporting of pretest results, and printing of final questionnaire, (2) completion of fieldwork, (3) completion of data verification, data entry, and codebook, (4) delivery of data files and media environment/methodological report. Submission of Responses to the RFQ and Due Date: 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 5:00 p.m. EST, Wednesday, February 26, 1999 and they shall reference this RFQ No. B/PA-99-9 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, Lesley D. Isaac, 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. The Contracting Officer has found and determined that this proposed work is appropriate for an Aunrestricted@ procurement pursuant to FAR Subpart 19.502 (Setting Aside Acquisitions). All responsible sources may submit a quotation which will considered. Posted 02/04/99 (W-SN295258). (0035)

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