MINUTES FROM PROPOSAL CONFERENCE OF OCT. 10, 2001 FOR LIFE INSURANCE SOLICITATION

Introduction

The Contracting Officer welcomed all attendees, introduced the GSO Ms. Melvern Favors, COR office representative Ms. Sevin Orak and Procurement and Contracting supervisor Meral Yalhi.

Discussion of the Solicitation Package

The scope of the life insurance solicitation was conveyed as well as highlighting the following sections of the solicitation:
1. The potential offerors must bid on the main solicitation package including the base and all option years prices. Any suggestions or requested changes to this package must be offered as an alternative.
2. All the submittals listed in the cover letter must be submitted. Any deviations from these submittals will result in the offer being considered as technically unacceptable.

Questions:

Answers to the attached questions asked prior to the conference was distributed along with amendment A-002 for revision of clause C.2.2. The attached questions and answers were discussed during the conference.

Conclusion

The Pre-Proposal Conference concluded and attendees were thanked for their presence and expression of interest in serving the U.S. Government. The meeting was adjourned.



Sincerely,


Melvern Favors
Contracting Officer







Enclosure:
Questions and Answers 1 pg.

LIFE INSURANCE SOLICITATION (STU150-01-R-0822)
QUESTIONS & ANSWERS


1. How is the age that is listed in the solicitation’s attached employee lists calculated? These ages are the real ages of the individuals.
2. What is the previous benefit total given to the employees? Since there is a policy difference between the previous contract and this solicitation, this information is obsolete. The policy for benefit is based on the salary of the employee at the time of death whereas the previous contract was based on a fixed price benefit.
3. Will the beneficiary form be provided to the contractor? The contractor, Human resources office and the beneficiaries will keep copies. However, the employees are not obliged to fill out this form. For those employees who want their legal heirs to benefit, forms are not required to be filled out.
4. Although employees’ serious illnesses are listed in question no. 14, can we have the age of these employees? US Embassy does not have this information but will try to acquire it and inform the potential offerors.
5. What can be done in situations where the Duns number can not be obtained? US Government requires the Duns number and the potential offeror should do everything possible to obtain this number including inquiring the web page. But if the Duns number is not obtained, it will not be a cause of elimination of their offer.
6. Since the Turkish Treasury Ministry has issued a premium table based on gender, can the gender and age of each employee be provided? Since compiling this list will take time, the USG can provide the total number of males and females. Male: 536, Female: 143.
7. Can the position of the employees be provided? The general breakdown of the US Embassy and its missions’ work force is as follows: half are guards, a quarter is blue-collar workers and the remaining quarter is white-collar employees.
8. Can the distribution of the employees by city be provided? The total number of employees according to city – Ankara, Istanbul, Izmir, and Adana - will be provided. Yes. : Ankara:67%, Istanbul: 29%, Adana: 4%
9. On page 31, clause L.4.3.5 of the solicitation, there is a mention that cash flow statements have to be provided. For which periods does these statements have to be provided? These statements should be provided for two consecutive 6 month periods.
10. According to Turkish Insurance law, insurance companies do not have to provide invoices. Can we provide receipts instead of invoices against payments? This point has to be checked with our Washington office and informed later. In retrospect: proforma invoice will be acceptable.
11. Have any of your employees been rejected under the past life insurance policy? No, all of our employees in the work force have been covered and our aim is to have all of them covered under the new contract.
12. If the employees leave the USG, does the government require a continuation of their insurance under an individual insurance policy? No, a continuation of insurance is not required; but in order to go with prevailing practice, providing such a chance for these individuals might be discussed for future option years.
13. How is the “Plan Administration” to be demonstrated or provided by the offerors? The potential offerors should provide a general description of how they plan to implement life insurance services to the USG by stating the period the benefit payment will be made, how they maintain adequate reserves to pay these benefits, their points of contact, etc.
14. Will the USG inform the changes in their employees or in their salaries? USG will be providing the additions/deletions in their employees immediately while providing salary changes on a monthly basis.
15. According to Turkish law, the customer’s premium payment must be made according to the age and gender of each individual. Since each policy agreement has to be submitted to the approval of the Turkish Treasury Ministry, a list of the premiums for each employee based on their age and salary has to be attached to the contract. The present price charts can be used to compare offers by the USG; but the average premium rate can not be used for the actual premium calculations. The actual premium rate for any new employee has to be calculated according to their age, gender and salary if they do not meet the current premium scale. Will this pose a problem for the USG? This issue will change the whole basis of the solicitation and we will have to seek our Washington office’s guidance on this issue. The solicitation due date will have to be extended.