Telephone Survey of Libya

(i)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. (ii) Solicitation No. BBG50-R-11- 0023 is issued as a Request For Proposal (RFP) for a Firm-Fixed price purchase order, subject to the availability of funding, that will be awarded using the contracting by negotiation procedures in FAR Part 15. (iii) This solicitation document and incorporated provisions and clauses are those in effect from the Federal Acquisition Regulations 2005-53, dated August 04, 2011. (iv) This is a full and open competition. The North American Industry Classification Systems (NAICS) code for this acquisition is 541720. (v) The contractor shall provide the following Contract Line Item (CLIN): 1. The contractor shall conduct a telephone study of the country of Libya. (vi) The Broadcasting Board of Governors, International Broadcasting Bureau (BBG/IBB) has a requirement, subject to the availability of funds, for a contractor to obtain quantitative data the media habits of the adult population of the country of Libya. Below is general information about the requirement, 1) Nature of Survey. Audience data shall be obtained through a survey of Libya that is designed to obtain the most accurate possible information about: (a) the size of the audience for BBG's Arabic language TV channel, Alhurra, and the Arabic language radio channel, Radio Sawa; (b) the size of the regular and occasional audience for other international and domestic television and radio broadcasters (c) demographic characteristics and geographical distribution of these audiences; and (d) general patterns of media use. In addition, a small number of questions concerning respondents views on various social and political questions may be included in the survey. The interviews shall be conducted by telephone by trained interviewers using CATI (computer assisted telephone interviewing) methodology. IBB will require demographic information on each respondent including, gender, age, and education. 2) General Responsibilities of Contractor. The contractor shall be responsible for the project design and execution, including the following specific tasks: A. Translation, formatting, pretesting, and adaptation of the questionnaire for CATI administration; B. Development of Sampling Plan, based on consultation with IBB, Office of Research; C. Training interviewers; D. Arranging and supervising all aspects of fieldwork; E. Entering and processing the survey data, including data cleaning and encoding survey responses and F. Ascertaining the representativeness of the sample and weighting the data, if necessary; 3) Sample Design. Interested offerors are requested to submit price quotations for a total sample of 500 and 1,000 adults, age 15 or older, that is representative to the maximum extent possible of the population of the survey universe. While a national survey covering all telephone households would be desirable, BBG recognizes that logistical and other constraints may affect the extent to which all portions of the Libyan population may be covered in a sample survey, as well as the sampling methods that may be employed. Offerors are therefore encouraged to submit proposals offering various levels of survey coverage, with accompanying pricing for each. Proposals should include a precise definition of the population(s) to be covered, including estimates of the size of that population and a description of the sampling frame(s) to be used. Given the assumed prevalence of mobile phones in Libya, it would be highly desirable to include mobile phone lines in the sample frame in addition to land lines. Offerors sampling plans should, if possible, include provision for inclusion of mobile phone users in the study. If offerors believe it is not possible to include mobile phone users, proposals should clearly state this and the reasons for their exclusion. The sample shall be drawn using recognized probability methods, all the way down to the selection of the individual respondent at the household level. In the event that any departure from probability sampling methods is recommended by the offeror for all or any part of the survey, the sampling methodologies to be employed shall be described in detail and a rationale for their use shall be provided. A detailed sampling plan shall be submitted including a description of the survey coverage, allocation of the sample, description of the sampling frame, description of any stratification criteria to be used, description of the stages of selection and the selections methods to be used at each stage, the method to be used for selection of the respondent at the household level, and call-back rules to be employed. It is assumed that the sample will be distributed in proportion to the population of each region or other geographic unit to be surveyed; in the event that the offeror wishes to propose a sample design departing from this principle the proposal should describe the allocation to be used and the reasons for doing so. 4) Questionnaire. IBB will supply a set of questions for an interview of approximately 15 minutes. Questionnaire will be provided in draft form for suggestions and comments by contractor based on contractor's knowledge of local cultural or political sensitivities. Following receipt of contractor's comments, IBB shall prepare a final English version of the questionnaire that the contractor shall translate into Arabic. 5) Pre-test. The questionnaire shall be pre-tested by the contractor prior to the commencement of any fieldwork with at least 15 pre-test interviews conducted. The contractor shall provide IBB with a written report of the results of the pre-test, along with details of any problems encountered and suggested remedies, prior to the commencement of any fieldwork. 6) Fieldwork. Interviews shall be conducted by experienced field workers who shall be thoroughly briefed by 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 interviews shall be back checked and 5% of the interviews shall be accompanied by a team supervisor. The offerors response to the RFP shall include a description of the professional qualifications of the proposed interviewers and a description of the training that shall be provided to interviewers to ensure proper understanding of the survey instrument. 7) Data Processing. The contractor shall be responsible for data entry, cleaning, and processing, including development and implementation of a coding scheme for all open-ended questions. The contractor shall supply data to IBB as a clean, fully labeled SPSS *.sav file with a complete data dictionary of variable names and value labels. There shall be one data record for each respondent and records shall be of fixed length. The contractor shall be responsible for deriving and applying any post-stratification weights required to bring the sample into conformity with the demographic profile of the population, as well as any additional weighting factors required to correct for disproportionate allocation, if use. Each record shall include a unique respondent ID number, interviewer ID number, PSU ID number, and codes for precise location and date of interview. Each record shall include demographic information about the respondent, including: gender, exact age, and education level. 8) Technical Appendix. When delivering data, the contractor shall provide a Technical Appendix which shall include the following: A. A complete Sampling Plan, including list of PSUs and individual sampling points and number of interviews conducted at each sampling point. B. Details of response rates, including tabulation of unsuccessful interview attempts by sampling point, with reasons for non-response (i.e. respondent refusal, proxy refusal, inability to locate selected respondent, etc.). C. Interviewer instructions; D. A brief report on survey operations including any practical difficulties encountered in carrying out the survey; E. Estimated sampling error and F. A complete explanation of the weighting scheme including details of how weighting factors were developed and applied, as well as the demographic data on which weights were based (i.e., age, gender, and education distributions in the population); 10) Summary of deliverables. The Deliverables to be provided to IBB by the contractor under this contract for Section A are as follows: (See preceding paragraphs for detailed description of requirements for each deliverable). a. A complete data set formatted as SPSS file (see description above under A.7) b. A copy of the final questionnaire, as fielded, in English and Arabic c. A Technical Appendix (see description above under A.8) 11) Delivery Schedule. It is anticipated that the fieldwork for this survey shall take place no later than September, 2011, with the deliverables listened in Section 10 above to be submitted no later than two (2) weeks after the conclusion of fieldwork. (vii) The Period of Performance is 120 days after award. The anticipated date of award is September 6, 2011. Please note that it is anticipated that work on this project will begin no later than September 30, 2011, with draft reports to be submitted to BBG within two months after commencement of fieldwork, and final report within three month of commencement of fieldwork. (viii) The Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) provision FAR 52.212-1 Instruction to Offerors-Commercial Items, applies to this solicitation. Full text of all FAR clauses and provisions are available electronically at the following Internet address: (http://www.arnet.gov/far). Interested contractors who are capable of providing these services should submit a proposal demonstrating their ability and experience in providing the required services. CONTRACTOR QUALIFICATIONS SHALL INCLUDE BUT NOT BE LIMITED TO: A) Expertise relevant to provision of specified services as demonstrated by the overall quality and appropriateness of the methodological approach proposed, B) Experience in conducting quantitative media research in the market specified and/or similar markets and C) Professional experience and expertise of the proposed project leader(s). OFFERORS RESPONDING TO THIS SOLICITATION SHALL SUBMIT AT MINIMUM, THE FOLLOWING ITEMS TO THE CONTRACTING OFFICER: (1) a technical proposal which addresses the factors described below in (ix) and (2) and a price proposal in accordance with (ix). The Price Proposal must contain a copy of the SF 1449 which is attached to this notice and Attachment A entitled - Schedule Service and Price filled out by the Offeror. (ix)The Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) provision FAR 52.212-2 Evaluation-Commercial Items, applies to this solicitation. The Government intends to make a best value selection and will award a Commercial Item, Firm-Fixed-Price, purchase order resulting from this RFP to the responsible offeror whose offer conforming to the RFP will be most advantageous to the Government, based on technical approach, experience, past performance, and price. When combined, technical evaluation factors are more important than cost/price. The Government will trade-off among cost or price and non-cost factors and may accept other than the lowest priced proposal. THE FOLLOWING FACTORS SHALL BE ADDRESSED IN THE TECHNICAL PROPOSALS AND SHALL BE USED TO EVALUATE PROPOSALS: A) Demonstrated experience in conducting quantitative research via telephone in the Arab world on broadcast media; B) Demonstrated experience in conducting survey research in general in the Arab world; C) Quality of the proposed sampling technique, especially including details on the nature of the sampling frame and respondent selection procedures; D) Quality of the proposed procedures for data collection, entry, and verification; E) Overall quality control measures proposed, especially for survey fieldwork; F) Professional qualifications of proposed project managers and G) Ability to complete the project in a timely manner (Technical Approach); 2) The Offeror shall provide recent examples (within the past three (3) years) demonstrating its experience in providing the services required under this Solicitation to Governmental and/or commercial customers. Examples provided should be of the same and/or similar services specified herein. (Experience) 3) Detailed information on past performance and relevant contracts for same and/or similar services with a minimum of three (3) references including contract numbers, points of contact with telephone numbers and email addresses (i.e., the point of contact who can verify performance) (Past Performance) and 4) Separate Price Proposal showing a price breakdown for CLIN above. The prices for shall be provided in English and United States dollars. The Price Proposal must contain Attachment A entitled - Schedule Service and Price filled out by the Offeror, completed copy of the provision FAR 52.212-3 and a signed copy of the SF 1449 which is attached to this notice. Offerors are cautioned that failure to address each of the above factors may deem their proposal unacceptable. (x) Offerors shall include a completed copy of the provision FAR 52.212-3 Offeror Representations and Certifications-Commercial Items with its offer. Proposals should also include contractor's DUNS Number, prompt payment terms, and correct remittance address, if different from mailing address. The contractor must be registered on-line with the Central Contractor Registration (CCR) Web site at: http://www.ccr.gov/Start.aspx. The successful Offeror will be required to complete and submit an ACH form, for Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT), to the Contracting Officer before submitting their first invoice. In addition, the successful Offeror must obtain a DUNS number and have an active registration in CCR before award. (xi) The FAR clause 52.212-4 Contract Terms and Conditions-Commercial Items, applies to this acquisition with addendum to the clause. (xii) FAR clause 52.212-5 Contract Terms and Conditions Required to Implement Statutes or Executive Orders-Commercial Items, applies to this solicitation by reference and proposed subsequent contract as well as the following clauses contained within FAR clause 52.212-5: 52.219-8 Utilization of Small Business Concerns (May 2004); 52.219-28, Post Award Small Business Program Rerepresentation (Apr 2009); 52.222-3, Convict Labor (June 2003); 52.222-19, Child Labor'Cooperation with Authorities and Remedies (Jul 2010); 52.222-21 Prohibition of Segregated Facilities (Feb 1999); 52.222-26 Equal Opportunity(May 2007) (E.O. 11246); 52.222-35 Equal Opportunity for Veterans (Sep 2010) (38 U.S.C. 4212); 52.222-36 Affirmative Actions for Workers with Disabilities (Oct 2010) (29 U.S.C. 793), 52.222-37 Employment Report on Veterans (Sep 2010); 52.223-18, Contractor Policy to Ban Text Messaging while Driving (Sep 2010); 52.225-13 Restrictions on Certain Foreign Purchases (June 2008) and 52.232-33 Payment by Electronic Funds Transfer-Central Contractor Registration (OCT 2003). (xiii) There are no other additional contract requirement(s) necessary for this acquisition other than those consistent with customary commercial practices. NOTE: See Government-Wide Numbered Notes 13 and 25. (xiv) No Defense Priorities and Allocation System (DPAS) rating assigned. (xv) Failure to provide the required services for the above CLIN may result in the rejection of your proposal. Proposals shall be in writing and must be signed by an official authorized to bind the organization. Oral, faxed or emailed proposals will not be accepted. Please note that questions must be submitted in writing to Myria Carpenter by email (contact@example.gov) or fax (+1 (555) 000-0000) and received before the deadline of 12:00 p.m., Eastern Standard Time on August 19, 2011. Technical Proposals shall be submitted as an original and two copies and Price Proposals shall be submitted as an original and one copy. All proposals must be sent via courier or overnight delivery and must be received before deadline. Proposals are due at the Broadcasting Board of Governors, International Broadcasting Bureau, Office of Contracts, 330 C Street, SW, Room 4007B, Washington, DC 20237 on August 29, 2011, at 12:00PM, Eastern Time. (xvi) Contact: Myria Carpenter, Contract Specialist, Facsimile +1 (555) 000-0000, email: contact@example.gov. All responsible sources may submit an offer that will be considered by the Agency.