Health Insurance for Locally Employed Staff (LES), U.S. Embassy Bandar Seri Begawan, Brunei

The U.S. Department of State, through its Acquisitions office in Frankfurt, awarded a contract for health insurance coverage for locally employed staff at the U.S. Embassy in Bandar Seri Begawan, Brunei, under solicitation number 19GE5026D0001. Although the solicitation was initially subject to international trade agreements including the World Trade Organization Government Procurement Agreement and Free Trade Agreements, a sufficient number of offers from U.S.-made or designated-country end products were not received to meet the government’s needs. As a result, the purchase exception under FAR 25.403(c) was invoked, allowing the award to proceed with the sole acceptable offer from a Brunei-based provider, despite the lack of compliance with the usual preferential sourcing rules. The contract, classified under NAICS code 524114, has no set-aside designation and is being executed to support U.S. diplomatic operations in Brunei. The award was posted on May 22, 2026, with the place of performance centered in Bandar Seri Begawan, Brunei, while the contracting office is located in Washington, D.C. Jenina Dosch of the Department of State serves as the primary point of contact for the contract, with communications directed through her official email address. The contract’s purpose is to provide essential health insurance benefits to locally hired personnel working at the U.S. Embassy, ensuring compliance with operational and personnel support requirements in the host nation. Despite the international trade framework under which the solicitation was conducted, the unique circumstances of insufficient competition and the sole availability of an acceptable offer from a local entity led to the determination that this award was in the best interest of the U.S. government.