The U.S Department of Homeland Security, National Acquisition Center, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) intends to negotiate a Sole Source, Firm-Fixed Price, 100% Small Business, Commercial type purchase order with Language Testing International in accordance with FAR Part 6.302. Multiple awards are not being sought. Requirement: LTI will provide approximately 5,000 oral foreign language proficiency tests to current CBP personnel. The testing will be based on the US Government Interagency Language Roundtable (www.govilr.org). A contractor must be able to provide testing to approximately 5,000 persons covering the following languages: Arabic, Cantonese, French, Hindi, Mandarin, Polish, Russian, Spanish, Tagalog, and Vietnamese. Other language that maybe needed: Albanian, Amharic, Armenian, Bengali, Bulgarian, Cebuano, Chavacano, Croatian, Czech, Dari, Dutch, Egyptian, English, German, Modern Greek, Haitian Creole, Hebrew, Hmong, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Javanese, Khmer, Korean, Lao, Malay, Norwegian, Pashto, Persian Farsi, Portuguese, Punjabi, Romanian, Serbian, Slovak, Somali, Swahili, Swedish, Tausug, Thai, Turkish, Urdu, Visayan, and Wu. The contractor must also provide a secure account on its Internet client website for each person being tested and allow access to this site by CBP coordinators.Information from Justification For Sole Source (statements below are also requirements of any company seeking to respond to this Notice: I recommend that the U.S. Customs Service use other than full and open competition for the acquisition of the following supplies or services. If this acquisition is to be made with only one source or limited number of sources, negotiations will be conducted with the indicated proposed vendor(s): 1. Description of Action: This is a request for adequate testing opportunities for all possible officers covered by the Foreign Language Awards Program (FLAP) settlement agreement, those who are entitled to participate under the existing FLAP agreement and those that may be covered by a new FLAP agreement, Customs and Border Protection (CBP) needs to maintain testing services to determine the language proficiency of eligible officers (approximately 5,000). 2. Description of Supplies/Services: We are requesting that the Language Testing International (LTI) perform Foreign Language testing on our CBP employees who are entitled to participate under the existing FLAP agreement and those who may be covered by new or future FLAP agreements. LTI is the exclusive licensee of the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL), a leader in the evaluation of foreign language proficiency. LTI arranges ACTFL language proficiency assessments in 50+ languages for various government agencies. 3. Demonstrate the proposed contractor?s unique qualifications or the nature of the acquisition that requires use of the authority cited. Language Testing International (LTI) is the only company in the United States that can provide the large amount of foreign language testing that will be required to sustain the demand that is required for CBP Foreign Language Awards Program (FLAP). Tests will be administered by a certified Interagency Language Roundtable (ILR) tester via the telephone in which the CBP officer will respond to series of questions and participated in structured exercises designed to accurately measure their speaking proficiency. The Oral Proficiency Interviews (OPIs) conducted by LTI will be rated on the scale established by the Federal Interagency Language Roundtable (ILR) which is currently used by the CBP Foreign Language Awards Program. Given the projected number of employees that are required to be tested for foreign language proficiency (approximately 5,000) it will be necessary for Customs and Border Protection to secure LTI in order to assure adherence to both the current and future FLAP settlements and agreements. LTI not only provides language proficiency testing but also builds customized secure websites to enable a FLAP coordinator to schedule tests, as well as internet accounts for field staff to retrieve results. 4. Describe any other documentation to support the use of other than full and open competition. Only a few language proficiency testing agency exists and LTI is the only agency that can accomplish this contract based on the amount of tests and the number of diverse languages required to be tested. This Notice of Intent is not a request for competitive quotes. Any firm that believes it can meet the requirements of this Notice must provide written notification to the Contracting Officer by Tuesday, August 14, 2007. A firm submitting information should provide supporting evidence in sufficient detail to demonstrate the capability of the firm to provide the services identified within this Notice. Information must be sent to the Contracting Officer at:
[email protected]. No telephone submission of information will be accepted. Responses received will be evaluated however; a determination by the Government not to compete the proposed procurement based upon responses to this notice is solely within the discretion of the Government. If no responses are received, the Government will proceed with the Sole Source contract.