1.             Background

Social Impact (SI) is a Washington, DC-area international development management consulting firm. SI’s mission is to improve the effectiveness of international development programs to improve people’s lives. SI provides a full range of management consulting, technical assistance, and training services to strengthen international development programs, organizations, and policies. SI provides services globally in the areas of monitoring and evaluation, strategic planning, project, and program design, organizational capacity building, and gender and social analysis. SI services crosscut all development sectors including democracy and governance, health and education, the environment, and economic growth. SI’s clients include US government agencies such as USAID, the Millennium Challenge Corporation, and the US Department of State; bilateral donors; multilateral development banks; foundations; and non-profits.

SI’s official home page is: http://www.socialimpact.com

SI is currently implementing the Mali Monitoring, Evaluation, & Learning (MEL) Platform Project in Mali with funding from USAID/Mali. The goal of the Project is to assist USAID/Mali and its partners to generate empirical data and to foster learning and knowledge management, through a participatory process to support stronger results and improve evidence-based programming.

The purpose of this RFQ is to solicit quotations for legal services to help SI officially obtain its registration as an international organization in Mali, notably to obtain a license to practice from the Ministry of Territorial Administration and Decentralization to carry out activities in Mali. SI has submitted all the necessary documents for registration but has been in a pending status for more than one year and is seeking legal assistance to help facilitate and complete the registration process.

2.    Descriptions of Goods/Services and Technical Specifications

The purpose of this RFQ is to identify a Malian law firm to provide legal assistance following up with the relevant parties on SI’s pending business registration. SI intends to issue a fixed labor hour legal services agreement to a qualified law firm to provide the following deliverables:

Deliverable 1: Registration of Entity

• Registering the organization in Mali:
• Follow up with the necessary parties to complete SI’s pending registration in Mali. SI has already obtained the TIN and the police investigation is already completed. Social security registration is underway by the project office in Mali. The next steps concern liaising with the Ministry of Territorial Administration and Decentralization, the Government Secretariat and the Presidency and any other required procedures for establishing a legal presence in Mali.

*Additional ad hoc legal guidance may be requested by SI, pending satisfactory performance during registration.

3.    Submission Instructions

Offerors are responsible for ensuring that their offers are received by SI in accordance with the instructions, terms, and conditions described in this RFQ.  Failure to adhere with instructions described in this RFQ may lead to disqualification of an offer from consideration.

A.              Offer Deadline and Protocol 

Offers must be received no later than the deadline and to the contact specified on page 1. Please reference the RFQ number in any response to this RFQ. Offers received after the specified time and date will be considered late and may be considered only at the discretion of SI.

B.              Eligibility  

By submitting an offer in response to this RFQ, the offeror certifies that it and its principal officers are not debarred, suspended, or otherwise considered ineligible for an award by the U.S. Government. SI will not award a contract to any firm that is debarred, suspended, or considered to be ineligible by the U.S. Government.

C.              Technical Proposals

Suppliers must submit the following information or documents:

• Valid business license
• Summary of Relevant Capability, Experience, and Past Performance (Appendix A): Offerors must complete the table in Appendix A to document exceptional capability in provided the requested services. In completing the Annex, offerors must address the following:
  • Law Firm Background: SI is a for-profit entity working in a predominantly non-profit industry. Does your firm have previous registration and tax identification obtaining experience with for-profit companies in the international development field?
  • Service Provided: Do you have in-house expertise to provide the required legal registration services?
  • Quantified number of firms registered: How many USAID implementing partners have you successfully registered in Mali?
  • References: Information for 2-3 references that SI may contact. References should be USAID implementing partners that the firm has already successfully registered in Mali.
• Attorney Qualifications (Appendix B): Please provide the qualifications of attorneys and personnel that would be involved in providing the above services.
• Evidence of Responsibility (Appendix C): Offerors must complete the Evidence Responsibility form on their company letterhead and include with their offer.

Quotations must be submitted in English.

Click here to download the Attachments

D.              Financial Proposals 

Offerors must submit a complete price proposal, clearly identifying any taxes or fees.  Quotations must be priced on a fixed unit price all-inclusive basis, including delivery and all other costs. Pricing must be presented in US dollars. Costs should be presented based on the offerors’ labor categories and the hourly rates charged for each class of employee as follows:

4.    Evaluation and Award

An award may be made to one or more responsible offeror(s) who follow the RFQ instructions, meet the eligibility requirements, and is selected via a trade-off analysis judged to offer best value based on application of the following evaluation criteria:

• Relevant Capability, Experience, and Past Performance – 45 percent: ability for the offeror to demonstrate successful past performance in delivering the services required and to similar organizations.
• Price – 35 percent: Competitiveness of rates presented in the offer.
• Personnel – 20 percent: The ability for the offeror to provide qualified personnel in a timely manner

Evaluation Criteria Grading for Each Criterion:

Exceptional :   5 Points

Exceeds Expectations :  4 Points

Meets Expectations :  3 Points

Meets most but not All Expectations :  2 Points

Non-Responsive to Expectations :  1 Point

Please note that if there are significant deficiencies regarding responsiveness to the requirements of this RFQ, an offer may be deemed “non-responsive” and thereby disqualified from consideration. SI reserves the right to waive immaterial deficiencies at its discretion.

5.    Terms and Conditions

A.              Offer Validity

Offers must remain valid for not less than ninety (90) calendar days after the offer deadline.

B.              Best Offer Quotations

Best-offer quotations are requested. It is anticipated that award will be made solely based on these original quotations. However, SI reserves the right to conduct negotiations with and/or request clarifications from any offeror prior to award.

C.              Taxes and VAT

The agreement under which this procurement is financed does not permit the financing of any taxes, VAT, tariffs, duties, or other levies imposed by any laws in effect in the Cooperating Country.  No such Cooperating Country taxes, VAT, charges, tariffs, duties or levies will be paid under an order resulting from this RFQ.

D.              Source and Nationality

All goods and services offered in response to this RFQ or supplied under any resulting award must meet USAID Geographic Code 935 in accordance with the United States Code of Federal Regulations (CFR), 22 CFR §228. The cooperating country for this RFQ is specified on the cover page of this RFQ.

Offerors may not offer or supply any commodities or services that are manufactured or assembled in, shipped from, transported through, or otherwise involving any countries which are deemed ineligible by the US Government.

E.              Prohibition of Terrorism

In addition, Offerors understand that U.S. Executive Orders and U.S. law prohibits transactions with, and the provision of resources and support to, individuals and organizations associated with terrorism. It is the legal responsibility of the offerors to ensure compliance with these Executive Orders and laws.

F.              Payment Terms

SI’s standard payment terms are net 30 days after receipt and acceptance of an approved invoice, and submission of deliverables if applicable. Payment will only be issued to the entity submitting the offer in response to this RFQ and identified in the resulting award; payment will not be issued to a third party.

G.             Additional Terms and Conditions 

This is an RFQ only. Issuance of this RFQ does not in any way obligate SI or its client to make an award, nor does it commit SI or its client to pay for costs incurred in the preparation and submission of a proposal.

By submitting a response to this RFQ, the offeror understands that SI’s client is not a party to this solicitation and the offeror agrees that any protest hereunder must be presented—in writing with full explanations—to SI for consideration, as SI’s client will not consider protests regarding procurements carried out by implementing partners. SI, at its sole discretion, will make a final decision on the protest for this procurement.

This solicitation is subject to SI’s standard terms and conditions.  Any resultant award will be governed by these terms and conditions; a copy of the full terms and conditions is available upon request.

SI may cancel this RFQ at any time.

Click here to download the Attachments