International Broadcasting Bureau Research Blanket Purchase Agreement (BPA)

Amendment No. 5 is issued as follows: Solicitation Amendment BBG50-R-17-00044 The purpose of this notice is to advise the public that the Broadcasting Board of Governors intends to amend the solicitation to afford an opportunity to compete under a new task area (Task Area 6) to firms who have submitted a proposal for task areas 1 through 5 and to all other interested firms. Although the solicitation has already closed and awardees have been identified for task areas 1 through 5, the awards have not been announced. The agency intends to hold a new competitive procurement to select awardees who may compete for orders under the new task area 6. With the exception of awardees previously selected to compete for orders under task areas 1 through 5, new awardees selected for task area 6 may only compete for work under Task Area 6. Parties interested in competing for orders under the new Task Area 6 may request a copy of the amended solicitation by e-mailing Ms. Seneca Belinfontie at sbelinfo@VOAnews.com prior to 12:00 PM EST, July 27, 2017. The agency, at its discretion, may consider requests received after this deadline. The agency will provide the amended solicitation without request to all offerors identified to receive awards under task areas 1 through 5, in addition to known capable sources. Prior to receiving a copy of the amendment, all interested concerns will be required to comply with the same two-phase solicitation approach used to select awardees under Task Areas 1 through 5. Synopsis of Task Area 6 Projects This amendment adds an additional task area to the multiple-award/multiple task-area Blanket Purchase Agreement by adding Task Area 6 under which BPA holders may compete for orders for quantitative research services. The projects planned for Task Area 6 consist primarily of Representative BBG Survey Research of the following types, with nearly all projects resulting in the delivery of written reports: Sampling Plans, Survey Instrument Customization, Data Collection/Fieldwork, Data Processing, Quality Control, Data Analysis, Reporting, and Editing. Representative Surveys: The aim of these surveys (mainly National, but in rare cases Urban or Capital City) is to provide a comprehensive picture of general media use in the area of study, with specific media consumption and behavioral and impact data for the relevant international broadcaster(s). Samples are stratified and randomized at every level, from the primary sampling unit down to the individual respondent. Sampling points are selected using PPS (probability proportional to size) when possible, excepting a purposeful selection of the capital or primary urban area, using the most robust sampling frame available for the population. This may include recent census data, but often relies on alternative data, such as 20-year census projections, or Demographic and Health, World Bank economic or other surveys based on a sample of the target population. BBG surveys typically interview 1000-3000 respondents, using a questionnaire that consists of a core set of standard media behavior questions, broadcaster-specific modules, and a range of ad-hoc questions that may be relevant to the context. The latter may contain attitudinal questions that help provide more nuanced data for audience segmentation and typography. Most surveys are conducted face-to-face in respondents' homes using paper coding, although phone surveys using Computer Aided Telephone Interviewing (CATI) technology are also used in the right circumstances, such as in countries with very high telephony combined with severe security challenges. Face-to-face surveys last an average of 45-60 minutes, while phone surveys run an average of 25-30 minutes. These surveys provide the majority of the performance measures currently required by GRPA/PAR reporting. Analytics used for written survey reports typically include: Access and consumption rates of major media by platform TV vs. internet); Exposure to branded channels (e.g. top radio and TV stations); Frequency of more specific types of new media behavior (e.g. texting vs. listening to radio on mobile phones); Frequency and source of news consumption; Levels of awareness of International Broadcasters; Levels of interest in types of news and information; Standard demographics, X-tabbed with all the above when sample warrants; Secondary (desk) research on political, economic and cultural influences as context for media behavior; and Other major performance metrics. //////////////////////////////////////////END////////////////////////////////////////////////// Amendment No. 4 is issued for the following: 1. Under Section G.4 Inquires, the last date for receipt of inquires for Phase Two is changed from July 3 to July 6, 2017, 12:00 p.m. Eastern Time at CONQ&A@bbg.gov. 2. Under Section G.6, Submission of Proposal, (Phase Two), the last date for receipt of Proposals is changed from July 10, 2017 to July 14, 2017, 12:00 p.m. Eastern Time at CONSOL@bbg.gov. 3. All other terms and conditions of the solicitation remain the same. ///////////////////////////////////////END////////////////////////////////////////////// Amendment No. 3 is issued for the following: 1. Please Note the New due dates for Phase One and Two, Solicitation Closing Date, Posting of Questions and Answers with other clarifying details herein. 2. THE SOLICATION NUMBER IS LISTED INCORRECTLY AS BBG50-17-R-00044 THE CORRECT NUMBER IS BBG50-R-17-0044 AND I CANNOT CHANGE THE NUMBER ON THE SOLICITATION. 3. OFFERORS WHO HAVE PREVIOUSLY SUBMITTED PHASE ONE RESPONSES AND DO NOT WISH TO SEND A NEW ONE, PLEASE SEND AN EMAIL STATING SO. 4. Attachment No. 1 is Questions and Answers. Attachment No. 2 is Up-dated FBO Notice, BBG50-R-17-0044. //////////////////////////////////////////////END////////////////////////////////////////// Amendment No. 2 This Solicitation is being amended, once again to inform offerors that an Amendment containing New due dates for Phase One and Two, Solicitation Closing Date, Questions and Answers with other clarifying details will be issued no later than June 14, 2017 by close of business. Amendment No. 1 This Solicitation is being amended to inform offerors that an Amendment containing New due dates for Phase One and Two, Solicitation Closing Date, Questions and Answers with other clarifying details will be issued on or about June 9, 2017. COMBINED SYNOPSIS/SOLICITATION FOR BROADCASTING BOARD OF GOVERNORS International Broadcasting Bureau Research Blanket Purchase Agreement (BPA) B. GENERAL THIS IS A COMBINED SYNOPSIS/SOLICITATION FOR A COMMERCIAL ITEM PREPARED IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE FORMAT IN SUBPART 12.6 AS SUPPLEMENTED WITH ADDITIONAL INFORMATION INCLUDED IN THIS NOTICE. THIS ANNOUNCEMENT CONSTITUTES THE ONLY SOLICITATION; PROPOSALS ARE BEING REQUESTED AND A WRITTEN SOLICITATION WILL NOT BE ISSUED. Solicitation No. BBG50-R-17-00044 is issued as a Request For Proposal (RFP) for a Firm-Fixed -Price Commercial Item Blanket Purchase Agreement (BPA) that will be awarded using the contracting procedures in FAR Subpart 13.5. This solicitation document and incorporated provisions and clauses are those in effect from the Federal Acquisition Regulations FAC 2005-94, 2005-95, dated January 19, 2017. This acquisition is unrestricted (full and open competition), and will be awarded using a phased evaluation process. The North American Industry Classification Systems (NAICS) code for this acquisition is 541910 (Marketing Research and Public Opinion Polling) with a small business size standard of $15 million. B. BACKGROUND, HISTORY AND SCOPE OF EFFORT B.1 INTRODUCTION In the spirit of the Federal Acquisition Streamlining Act, the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG) intends to enter into multiple Blanket Purchase Agreements (BPAs) pursuant to Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) 13.303 to further reduce the administrative costs of acquiring comprehensive audience research services from multiple sources. Blanket Purchase Agreements reduce contracting costs such as searching for sources, the development of technical documents, drafting complex solicitations, and the evaluation of multiple bids and offers. This BPA will further decrease costs, reduce paperwork, and save time by eliminating the need to conduct repetitive, individual procurements. The end result is to create a purchasing mechanism for the Government that works better and costs less. B.2 AGENCY BACKGROUND The Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG) is an independent Federal entity that is responsible for U.S.-funded non-military international broadcasting of news and information to audiences around the world. It derives its authority from The International Broadcasting Act of 1994, 22 U.S.C 6201 et seq., The Foreign Affairs Reform and Restructuring Act of 1998, Pub. 105-277 1301 et seq., The Smith-Mundt Act of 1948, Pub. L. 80-402, as well as other statutes and executive orders. Based in Washington, DC, the BBG oversees a combination of federal and private broadcast entities. On the federal side, BBG oversees, through an umbrella organization called the International Broadcasting Bureau (IBB), the Voice of America (VOA), and Radio and TV Marti (referred to collectively as the Office of Cuba Broadcasting (OCB). VOA is headquartered in Washington, DC. OCB is located in Miami, FL. The BBG also issues and supervises grants to Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL, Inc.) located in Prague, Czech Republic; Radio Free Asia (RFA, Inc.) located in Washington, D.C.; Alhurra and Radio Sawa, which are part of the Middle East Broadcasting Network (MBN), headquartered in Springfield, Virginia. While consistent with the BBG's overall mission to promote freedom and democracy through accurate, objective and balanced news and information?, each of these entities has its own unique mission under the law, and collectively they account for over 278 million regular listeners, viewers, and online content users around the world. Broadcasts take place in over 60 languages, and programs are delivered via an increasingly complex array of multi-media platforms, including Amplitude Modulation (AM) and Frequency Modulation (FM) radio, shortwave, satellite and terrestrial Television (TV), Internet (including social media), Short Message Service (SMS), and even face-to-face events. In coming years, the BBG expects to accelerate its market driven shift to digital platforms, which will have important implications for the BBG's research program and will require new approaches to traditional research methods. Offerors are strongly encouraged to study the "Performance Information" section of the BBG's most recent Performance and Accountability Reports (available on www.bbg.gov ) to gain a better understanding of some of the data points required from the International Audience Research Project (IARP). B.3 PROGRAM BACKGROUND The BBG, like all federal agencies, is required to show evidence of performance and effectiveness, including its impact. Common measures such as audience reach and reliability of programming have long served the BBG in assessing the impact of our media on populations, and future studies under the IARP Multiple BPA Awards (qualitative) will have an increased focus on impact assessment, as defined by achieving the BBG mission. Research is also used to drive strategic and program planning within the agency. Information about media markets, trends in technology adoption and audience demographics and preferences inform these efforts. Since 2001, the International Audience Research Program (IARP) has supplied the agency with the business intelligence required for both performance measurement and planning through intensive study of broadcaster markets and audiences. Yet another element of the IARP research program is the evaluation of individual programs and audiences' content and format preferences in order bring actionable intelligence to BBG content producer to plan new or to fine-tune current programming. In order to meet the continuing needs of the agency, the Government intends to award a multiple award BPA during Fiscal Year 2017. The choice of a BPA, in which a group of Contractors will respond to Request for Proposals (RFP) for call orders issued by the BBG for individual studies, the number and value of which have yet to be determined, is intended to offer the agency the flexibility it requires in a global research program that must be responsive to fast-changing environments. The Contractors selected will provide the BBG with regular, current and accurate audience and market research from approximately 30-70 countries per year through a combination omnibus surveys, qualitative research and other analysis studies. The BBG will engage third-parties (who cannot perform any IARP-related tasks for BPA holders) to perform additional data quality control (including recodes), and to maintain a master survey questionnaire. While current measures will continue to be vital to the research program, the goal is to further evolve beyond them in ways that will help the agency and its broadcasters understand more about how sub-national markets are functioning, motivations behind the media behavior of target (in addition to existing) audiences, the impact of media beyond the individual consumer, creating compelling content that is market-appropriate, extending reach across target markets, and responding to the increasing and changing requirements for performance measures by Federal oversight authorities. BBG anticipates several changes to the IARP. They include the need for: 1) a closer correlation between research questions and broadcaster mission, 2) a deeper understanding of target audiences beyond standard demographics, 3) more frequent reviews of appropriate performance measures, and 4) increased media and program consulting services to ensure research directly supports program improvement. The factors that will drive these changes include the digital revolution, enhanced Congressional and Executive Oversight of performance and impact, greater data access and integration across government, and the need for transparency in performance measurement. Statutory Requirements for Audience Research Applicable law requires that the BBG conduct audience research. These laws include: The International Broadcasting Act of 1994, 22 U.S.C 6201 et seq., which requires the BBG to: - Review language services and make decisions to add or delete language services at least annually; - Ensure that the quality of broadcasts conforms to applicable statutory standards; - Ensure that the broadcasts reach significant audiences; and - Use audience research as the basis for its decision-making. The Government and Performance Results Act of 1993 (GPRA), Pub. L. 103-62 mandates that all federal entities set goals and establish performance measures to indicate progress or lack of progress in meeting these goals. These results must be reported to Congress annually. At this time, the majority of GPRA performance measures for BBG depend at least in part on in- country surveys; for all measures currently used in the Performance Accountability Report (PAR) see https://www.bbg.gov/strategy-and-performance/performance-accountability/ The Performance and Accountability Report (PAR) is required to satisfy the reporting requirements of six pieces of legislation enacted from 1986-2002, including GPRA and the Reports Consolidation Act. It combines performance and audited financial information intended to assist Congress, the President and the public in assessing the BBG's performance relative to its mission and stewardship of the resources entrusted to it. The PAR features BBG performance indicators required by GPRA. The Government Accountability Office (GAO), who frequently audits implementation of GPRA, requires that these measures be generated by means of a bona fide sample with all appropriate documentation as to sampling error and design effects, if clustering is used, where feasible. With the nature of broadcasting and media consumption changing so rapidly, the fragmentation of media audiences is now a reality in nearly all but the most undeveloped markets, and the increasing interest in demonstrating effectiveness in support of BBG and broadcaster missions, the agency foresees the possibility of amending GPRA performance measures during the life of a new research contract. BBG plans to award contract(s) that will be flexible enough to allow for the design of new methods of measuring and reporting performance. The combined impact of these legislative and other forces affecting U.S. International Broadcasting has greatly enhanced the importance of audience research. While such research should always be structured flexibly enough to respond to a changing marketplace, performance reporting requires that research findings be available on time and in BBG specified formats, since the results must meet certain predetermined milestones every year. These milestones include: - Mandated annual deadlines for delivery of GPRA and PAR documents to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and Congress; - At least annual Language Service Review and annual Strategic Process. - At least one program review for each language service each year by some of the BBG broadcasters; Alternatively, in other countries that are increasingly closed to outside researchers, methods for estimating critical broadcast research variables require continuous development and ingenuity. More information on the structure of U.S. International Broadcasting can be found at the following websites: BBG - www.bbg.gov VOA - www.voanews.com Radio/TV Marti - www.martinoticias.com RFE/RL - www.rferl.org RFA -www.rfa.org Radio Sawa - www.radiosawa.com Alhurra TV - www.alhurra.com B.4 SCOPE OF WORK The scope of the BPA includes the conduct of all required audience and market research for the BBG, its entities - both federal and grantee - including all broadcasting organizations that the BBG supervises, to include a total of over 60 language services broadcasting worldwide. The BBG and its entities will require varying combinations of qualitative and other research. B.5 OBJECTIVES The objective of this procurement is to award BPAs to multiple vendors under multiple task areas in support of developing a program of regular, current, accurate audience research to be conducted by contractors. The objectives of the desired research program are: - To satisfy the requirements of the agency's statutory framework, which stipulates that BBG use audience research as a basis for decision-making. (This decision-making includes general oversight, as well as annual reports on performance to OMB and Congress and an annual review of broadcast languages to consider additions and deletions of programming and language services, as described above.); - To meet the needs of professional broadcasting management. (The BBG recognizes that current, accurate, comprehensive audience research is essential to professional broadcasting, and that the language services of all the broadcasting entities must have access to a wide range of audience and market research to, among other things: discern media habits and how they are changing, identify and/or describe target audiences, understand content preferences, provide input to format changes, transmission requirements, and distribution opportunities, including local FM/AM, television, and digital affiliations); - To enable BBG to have consistent, accurate, reliable measurements of broadcast effectiveness, impact, and quality so that the components of a GPRA mandated Strategic Plan and Performance Plan can be enacted and applied at all levels of management in all the entities;, - To support the BBG in its collaborative relationships with other international broadcasters and U.S. Government agencies in the field of shared research; - To provide objective research on issues such as program quality and relevance in a timely manner in the direct support of approximately 75 individual program reviews conducted by several of the BBG's entities annually. B.6 TASK AREAS The IARP will require contractors to perform a host of research, analysis and reporting tasks that fall into five (5) Task Areas. Call orders may consist of activities from one or multiple Task Areas. The following provides a short description of each Task Area. Detailed Task Area information and descriptions will be provided during phase two of the solicitation process, as described in section F.1 Phased Solicitation-Evaluation Procedure of this document. The Task Areas under which prospective Offerors may compete and receive one or more awards are: Task Area 1: Omnibus Surveys: Vetting of potential omnibus vendors and their procedures, Basic Instrument Customization, Acquisition of Data, basic data Quality Control Task Area 2: Qualitative Studies: Instrument Review, Insights Collection/Fieldwork, Insights Processing, Quality Control, Insights Analysis, Reporting, Editing Task Area 3: Other Analytic Research Studies: Analysis, Reporting, Editing Task Area 4: Non-Representative Surveys: Sampling/Recruitment Plan, Survey Instrument Customization, Data Collection/Fieldwork, Data Processing, Quality Control, Data Analysis, Reporting, Editing. This Task Area covers non-representative surveys for markets where representative BBG surveys are not possible to conduct or where detailed information cannot be obtained in a nationally-representative survey Task Area 5: Online Audio-Visual Panels: Panel Instrument Review, Formatting and Translation; Formatting Audio-Visual Content; Participant Recruitment/Fieldwork; Data Collection/Fieldwork, Data Entry and Processing, Quality Control. This Task Area covers large sample online panels to assess audience preferences for audio visual content including TV, radio, or digital news and information or music broadcasts. B.7 BPA CALL ORDER WORK a. The Contractor shall provide all necessary direct and indirect labor, materials, equipment, supervision, management, travel, subcontracts, and any other items, personnel or material resources or miscellaneous items that are necessary for the Contractor to perform all work under BPA Call Orders that are issued to the Contractor by an authorized Ordering Official (i.e., Contracting Officer (CO), Contracting Officer Representative (COR). b. The BPA individual Call Orders performed by the Contractor will be in the five (5) Task Areas described in Section B.6 herein. The ordering procedure and required documentation for individual Call Orders are stated in section C.7 ORDER PLACEMENT AND FUNDING of this document. c. Individual Call Orders shall be competed amongst the multiple BPA awardees to determine fair and reasonable pricing. d. In addition, fair and reasonable pricing may be determined by use of historical pricing data on same and/or similar requirements. Also, to provide competition to the maximum practical extent possible the BBG encourages all interested Contractors to minimize and avoid any exclusive subcontract agreements. e. BBG reserves the right to include option periods in the Call Orders, when deemed necessary. Also, BBG may request cost or pricing data for any period to determine fair and reasonable pricing. f. Whenever Call Order work necessitates the use of a subcontractor(s) for any required fieldwork or other work, the Contractor's proposed price for the Call Order should include the price such subcontracting work. g. Offerors must provide Firm-Fixed-Priced proposals for each Call Order on which they bid. The quoted price must include all costs, including direct labor, fringe benefits, overheads and profit. If specified in the Call Order, Offerors may include multiple pricing options (for example with travel and/or without travel, etc.) h. All Deliverables under all call orders shall become Federal Government property. B.8 TECHNICAL REQUIREMENTS The Contractor shall implement audience and market research for the BBG and its entities and all the broadcasting organizations that it supervises, to include a total of over 60 language services broadcasting worldwide. The BBG and its entities will require varying combinations of quantitative, qualitative and other research. These combinations will be specified in Task and Delivery Orders issued under the contract. The Contractors will in every case be responsible for quality control and for delivery of the resulting research findings in specified formats and by the dates specified in the Task and Delivery Order. Precise project milestones, deliverable formats and deliverable deadlines will be outlined in each Call Order. Specifically, the Contractors are required to: - Conduct, directly or through subcontract arrangements, fieldwork related to data collection, quality control, data processing and analysis of research findings in accordance with schedules outlined in the Call Orders; - Ensure all intellectual property rights clauses as well as mandatory federal clauses flow- down to subcontracts. - Provide expert consultation on turning research findings into actionable program improvements to broadcasters of a selection of specified language services; - Comply with BBG document naming conventions, which are: - All study related documents will be have AAA-BB-CCC at the beginning of the file name, with AAA standing for the first three letters of the country name (with some exceptions such as IRN for Iran and IRQ for Iraq), BB for the project type (e.g. OM for omnibus survey, FG for focus groups etc.), CC standing for the FY in which the study was commissioned, and DDD standing for the BBG entity serving as the project technical lead (e.g. VOA, RFE, RFA, OCB, MBN, IBB) - After the AAA-BB-CC-DDD introduction, the document type will be listed, e.g. Discussion Guide, Screener, Questionnaire, Dataset, Technical Report, Analytical Report etc. - If the document has been accepted as final by the BBG's technical representative, the word FINAL will be added - The last point of information in the document name will show the date the document was prepared, e.g. 23Jan17. - Examples: - LAO-MP-17-RFA Analytical Report 3Jun17 - IRQ-FG-18-MBN Home Exercise 15Dec18 - RUS-FG-18-VOA Transcripts FINAL 8Aug18 - Report research findings according to report templates provided by the BBG and upload all deliverables to a password protected SharePoint site administered by the BBG Additional detail on the above items is provided in Section B.6 of the SOW (additional detail will be provided during phase two of the solicitation through additional solicitation information). B.8 RESEARCH MANAGEMENT AND ADMINISTRATIVE REQUIREMENTS Management Capacity In order to effectively support this Contract and the key and program staff assigned to it, the Contractor(s) is required to provide experienced back-room management, using robust and tested financial and accounting software, contract tracking and IT systems. Experienced Contract specialists must be able to create and enforce subcontracts across the globe with proper flow-down of Contract terms. Support staff must have back-up personnel when unable to perform tasks related to Contract and subcontract management. Aside from finance, accounting, contracts and administrative functions, the Contractor(s) shall also have available the following expertise available to its project staff working on this Contract, whether as employees or contractors: - Demographers/statisticians - Survey methodologists - Qualitative research specialists - Writers/editors - Subject Matter Experts - Expert Analysts Although not a requirement, the Government expects and encourages the Offerors to enter into business arrangements that will adequately support the requirements of this Contract. If two or more firms form a business arrangement and receive Task Orders under this Contract, the agency staff working on the Contract expects to have access to staff with specialized expertise, whether they are associated with the prime or subordinate firm. The Government's intent is to issue Call Orders that reflect a Performance oriented Contracting approach. In a Performance-Based Contract, the Government will specify requirements in terms of performance objectives and the Contractor(s) shall propose 'how to' best satisfy those objectives. Call Orders will be primarily negotiated and issued at the level of specific project in a specific market in one of the task areas outlined above. In totality, the agency expects all Call Orders under this BPA to produce about 20 BBG surveys, 30 omnibus surveys, 25 qualitative and 2 other analytic research projects annually. C. BPA TERMS AND CONDITIONS The Contractor agrees to the following terms of a BPA with the U.S. Broadcasting Board of Governors. The Contractor shall furnish all the necessary personnel and materials required to perform the individual orders placed under this BPA within the terms specified, and at the price(s) stated in each order. C.1 BPA Term The ordering period of this BPA is five years. There are no optional periods of performance. The initial term begins on the Date of Award and ends on June 28, 2022. Call Orders issued during the effective period of his BPA may extend beyond the effective period of this BPA. However, no new Orders may be issued once the period of performance of the BPA has expired. Orders issued under this BPA may contain optional periods of performance that the Government can exercise, subject to the terms of FAR 52.217-9. The Government may extend this BPA or orders placed under it subject to the terms of FAR 52.217-8. C.2 PLACE OF PERFORMANCE The place of Performance for services ordered under this BPA is at the Contractor's facilities. Place of Delivery is Office of Research and Assessment, 330 Independence Ave., S.W., Room 3600, Washington, D.C. 20237 Place of Acceptance and FOB point is also Office of Research and Assessment located in Washington, D.C. C.3 ESTIMATED VALUE OF ORDERS AND EXTENT OF OBLIGATION Although the Government does not guarantee, nor does it commit itself to placing a minimum amount of orders, the Government estimates that over the ordering period of this BPA, it will place orders with a cumulative value that does not exceed $7,000,000. The United States Government is obligated under this BPA only to the extent of authorized call orders placed by authorized acquisition personnel who are dully warranted contracting officers. C.4 PRICING ARRANGEMENTS Orders for services requiring an SOW/PWS will be placed using one or a combination of the following pricing arrangements: ? Firm Fixed Price (FFP) ? Labor Hour (LH) ? Time and Materials (T&M) C.5 PAYMENTS FOR ORDERS For orders issued on a labor hour (LH) or time-and-materials (T&M) basis: ? All T&M and LH orders issued under this BPA will include a ceiling price that the Contractor shall not exceed, except at its own risk. ? FAR 16.601 requires that T&M and LH labor rates be quoted at a fixed rate amount, using fully burdened hourly rates. ? FAR 16.601 requires that T&M material quotes must include the at-cost rate and any related shipping and handling costs. In other words, contractors shall not add profit or fee to charges for materials. For orders issued on a Firm Fixed Price basis, the following payment schedule will apply for each respective Task Area: The Contractor shall only invoice in accordance with the following payment schedules: Task Area 1: Omnibus Surveys Milestone Payment: Translation(s) of questionnaire module 20% Final deliverables submitted and approved 80% Task Area 2: Qualitative Studies Milestones for FGs/IDIs/Ethnographies Payment: Translation(s) of instrument and recruitment list submitted and approved 30% Initial summary report and recordings submitted and approved 30% Final deliverables submitted and approved 40% Milestones for Monitoring Panels Payment: Translation(s) of instrument and recruitment list submitted and approved 30% Receipt of draft report (and tr...