Long Term Agreements (LTAs) for the provision of Technical Translation and Revision Services from English to French / Spanish

New clarification added: Dear Bidder,Please find below our replies to your questions in Bold: For the Spanish example to be provided. One of our examples is the Energy Engineering field. The particular client had in place specific stylistic choices that / style guide, most of which do not comply with general Spanish standards (for instance, keeping Capital letters as in the source, punctuation, use of prepositions, etc.). Would this be acceptable? Yes, this would be acceptable if you would also attach the client style guide so that we can ascertain what is specific client style requirements from the quality of the translation. 

New clarification added: Dear bidders, Please find below our replies to your questions in Bold: could you confirm that a company can submit a tender, even if it is neither a joint venture, a consortium nor an association? Yes, a company can submit a bid. You do not need to be in a Joint Venture with another company to submit a bid. Submitting bids as part of a Joint Venture is a possibility in this tender, not a requirement. 

New clarification added: Dear Bidder, Please find below our replies in Bold: As per Section III Returnable Bidding Forms / Form F: Performance Statement Form - Past references. Can the references be long term clients of other fields ( medical, financial etc )  than the sample providers? Form F will be used to evaluate whether or not Bidders comply with the qualification criteria "2.1 Technical capability - The Offeror has been in business providing translation and revision services from English to French and Spanish for at least three (3) years, which includes at least one (1) year translating and revising infrastructure content. As evidenced in their Form F: Performance Statement Form." Please ensure that the reference you submit meet the criteria. As also indicated in Form F, "Fill in the table below all experiences similar to the ones requested in this tender, i.e.,  translation and revision services from English to French and Spanish for at least three (3) years, which includes at least one (1) year translating and revising infrastructure content. Please ensure that you provide at least 2 experiences per language you are submitting for and attach any supporting document to your offer (e.g., client references etc.). " Please follow the instructions provided in the form.

New clarification added: Dear Bidders, Please find below our replies to your questions in Bold: As per Section III Returnable Bidding Forms / Form F: Performance Statement Form there is a concern of confidentiality, whereby our client confirmed we can use their past work as an example, but they asked us not to provide identification information, the form however does require Name / Full Address /Email address and Organisation name. Please confirm in order to preserve their identity, we DO NOT have to fill in Name/Address/Email and Organisation name AND that we can cover out in the examples provided any further information that is revealing the identity of the clients. The samples you provide can be anonymized. However, in Form F, we require that you provide contact details of past references (it can be different references from the samples you have provided) but contact details are necessary as UNOPS will contact your references stated in Form F as part of our standard background checks. Please follow the instructions on the forms.Please note, the Vendor submission section / Document checklist - has 2 x the field:  Organization’s commitment to Compliance to labour standards. Can you please confirm if two different documents are required, OR it is a mistake and we can submit the same document on both fields, as they are marked mandatory. This is an error, you can submit the same document for both.In FormB: Proposal submission form ( at the bottom ) [Stamp form of Proposal ] what does it refers to please? Form E Format for Resume of Proposed Key Personnel [Provide names, addresses, phone and email contact information for two (2) references]. Who should be the key personnel's reference? The concern is of confidentiality nature, all personnel selected has either worked with our company ( and hence worked on the examples we will provide ) OR have worked during their experience with mutlupel clients, that do not want to reveal their identity. Please advise. We ask for references of clients or employers that have worked directly with the translators and revisers you are proposing. These references will be contacted as part of standard background checks on the personnel you are proposing. Please note that these background checks on the personnel are distinct from the ones we conduct on the past references of your organization.It seems to us that Form F: Performance Statement Form refers to single assignments. We would appreciate if you could confirm that bidders can prove their experience by providing information about framework contracts (including several assignments). We confirm that bidders can provide references to single assignments or frameworks contracts, both are considered acceptable. Additionally, could you please confirm that focal point refers to the main contact person? YesPlease clarify, can we upload bidding documents on the 18th of April. Based on the counter ( 11 days from today ) would be 17 April ( last day ). BAsed on Tender information : Deadline2022-04-18 10:00 UTC. As indicated in the General tab of this tender, the deadline is on 2022-04-18 10:00 UTC, the counter calculates automatically the remaining time until the deadline. For example, today on April 11th at 8:00 UTC, there are 7 days and 2 hours left, and the counter is indicating that there are 7 days and 2 hours left until the deadline. The counter seems to be working correctly. Please note that the time is indicated for timezone UTC.Dear UNOPS Procurement Team, Are freelancer translators considered subcontractors? Yes. In "List of subcontractors or suppliers" of the Form C: Financial Proposal Form, shall we list all the translators/revisers selected for this RFP? Yes. On the form E "Format for Resume of Proposed Key Personnel", could you please clarify what type of Reference you are looking for? Client or employer references, please see previously answered question on this topic. Most of the time our linguists do not interact with clients, and therefore the clients would not be able to provide a reference. Who are you hoping to be able to contact to qualify a reference? Someone who has been working directly with the proposed key personnel and has first-hand knowledge of that person's performance. Please ensure that the referent has no conflict of interest with the current tender.  Regarding the proposed linguist team (translators and revisers), are we obliged to use these resources in case of contract award? Yes, as indicated in the tender document "Schedule of Requirements" / III. Qualifications required / Personnel resources, "Using alternate resources must be endorsed by UNOPS upon review of their CV (to ensure the CV meets the minimum requirements)." Dear UNOPS Procurement Team, In Form C (Financial Proposal Form), how many decimals you would like bidders to express their prices? As many as you would like. Form C: Financial Proposal Form: List of subcontractors or suppliers: Should freelance translators be included in the List of Subcontractors? Yes

New clarification added: We understand UNOPS is not committing to any specific volume or contract worth which is fine.However, it's very useful for us to understand the "ballpark". Are you able to share, absolutely not committed, historical volumes (ie, what was the roughly need in # of words in 2021/2020/2019)? Our historical volumes are not representative of our future volumes. Also they would not take into account any volume from other UN agencies, which would also have access to this LTA. We recommend that you look at our website to have an idea of the amount of publications UNOPS translates every year. In terms of pricing, we recommend that you give us your base rate and then make use of the discount section in the financial form to indicate any different rates you may want to apply based on volumes.  

New clarification added: Can we submit the annual certified financial statements in French? Yes 

New clarification added: Dear Bidder, Please find below in Bold our replies to your questions:With regards to requirements of Infrastructure specialist reviser " Required: native-speaker in Spanish AND a minimum of a first university-level degree(such as a Bachelor’s degree) or professional certification in the relevant engineering field or other specialized professions" can you clarify please what "Other specialized profession " will be taken into account? Examples of other specialized professions include: architecture, urban planning, etc....Best regrads, 

New clarification added: Dear Bidder,Please find below our replies to your questions in Bold:With regards to the experience of linguists; "minimum of a first-degree university level (such as a Bachelor’s degree) in translation, linguistics, writing, or other relevant disciplines (required)" can you please confirm if physics as other discipline is acceptable, as the linguist has 10 years of tech/engineering translation experience. As described in the Schedule of Requirements, under III. Qualifications required / Personnel resources, for the positions of Translators and Revisers, the minimum requirement is "a minimum of a first degree university level (such as a Bachelor’s degree) in translation, linguistics, literature, writing, or other relevant discipline. Candidates in possession of a first degree university level related to infrastructure (engineering, architecture or other specialized infrastructure profession) may be considered with two additional years of experience in translation/re​vision experience". Physics is not considered a specialized infrascture profession, not it is a degree in translation, linguistics, literature, writing, or similar disciplines. Best regards,

New amendment added #1: Change in the Schedule of Requirements / III. Qualifications required / Personnel resources. Changes are in Bold Red in the document.

New clarification added: Dear Bidder, Please find below our replies to your questions in Bold. 1.How long will the Agreement be for? As stated in the Particulars tab / field Scope of proposal, "The LTA will be issued for three (3) years. An extension for an additional period of up to two (2) years (1+ 1) may be granted subject to satisfactory supplier performance, the continued requirement of the goods, reasonability of price and other factors determined by the UNOPS Procurement Authority." Please note that this agreement is for multiple projects that are not known yet.2. Validity of the Proposal. As stated in the Particulars tab / field Proposal validity period in days, "120" days.3.Currency to be used when setting prices.  As stated in the Particulars tab / field Proposal currency(ies), "USD". Best Regards, 

New clarification added: Dear Bidder,Please find our replies below in Bold. Regarding the samples, would you accept Spanish (Spain) samples? There is no restriction in the schedule of requirements regarding whether the samples must be in Latin American Spanish or European Spanish, only Spanish is mentionned. Therefore you may submit samples in Spanish (Spain). However, please note that the services under this LTA include translation services from English to Spanish (Latin American Spanish).If so, will they be assigned a lower score than Latin American Spanish samples? The evaluation criteria listed in the Returnable Bidding Forms, Form D, section 1.3 will apply.Would you consider patents for solar panels highly technical samples? Please note that the sample would be closer to the requirements of this tender, if the sample relates for example to the installation, design or characteristics of the solar panels, and less relevant if it primarily relates to the legal language from the patent.Do the samples have to be taken from projects dating from a specif period of time (samples from the last x years)? The samples must be examples of the bidder's own past work. There is no time limit prescribed in the tender.Best regards,

New clarification added: Dear Bidder, Please find below our replies in Bold.Is it possible to know the estimated value of the contract or estimated budget to finance the contract - for all the period or yearly? The tender is for the establishment of a Long-Term Agreement (LTA) for a duration of 3 years + 1 year + 1 year. There is no minimum commitment value. UNOPS reserves the right to request the services of the LTA holders at the pre-agreed rates whenever a need for translation arises during the duration of the LTA, these needs are not known in advance.Best regards,  

New clarification added: Dear Bidder, Please find below our replies in Bold: I am a unique English - French Translator. I cannot meet the criteria for English-French, can I apply? If so, how can I bid? Please note that the requirement is for Translation services from English to French AND English to Spanish. 

New clarification added: Dear Vendor, Please find below our replies in Bold:At point 20 "Format and signing of proposals" of the istructions to offerors, it is stated that "The Proposal shall be typed and shall be signed in indelible ink by the Offeror or a person or persons duly authorized to bind the Offeror to the contract". Would it be possible to sign our proposal with a qualified e-signature? Yes, we accept esignatures.At section III "Qualifications required" of the Terms of Reference, it is stated that "The service provider must provide evidence of the technical competencies and qualifications of translators and revisers through records such as named CVs and certifications that will be used to provide services to UNOPS". Could you please confirm that CVs must be submitted in the format of Form E? Yes, please use Form E predefined format for the CVs. If so, would you consider a digital signature in addition to the hand written one? Yes, we accept digital signatures.

New clarification added: Dear Vendor,Please find below our replies in Bold:Could you please confirm if the financial statements to be submited should be audited or not ? As indicated in the phrasing of the criteria "The service provider must have an annual turnover of at least USD 150,000 for any of the last 3 years. Offerors must include in their Proposal financial statements covering the last 3 years exercises (2018 accepted if 2021 not available, 2019, 2020, 2021).", it is not required that the financial statements be audited. Best regards,

New clarification added: Dear Vendor, Please find below in Bold the replies to your questions:Our last turnover was 54 344 USD. Can we still qualify?  As mentioned in the Criteria tab on this tender, the Financial capability criteria minimum requirement is for "The service provider must have an annual turnover of at least USD 150,000 for any of the last 3 years. Offerors must include in their Proposal financial statements covering the last 3 years exercises (2018 accepted if 2021 not available, 2019, 2020, 2021)." If you do not meet this requirement, unfortunately you would not qualify as per the criteria set in this tender.

New clarification added: Dear Vendor,Please find below our replies in Bold: Our first concern is the confidential nature of our work and the difficulty of producing samples based on other clients' work. The question is therefore whether UNOPS can send us documents to be translated by each of our candidates and which can be evaluated as Sample. Of course, the translations of these documents will not be charged. As mentioned in the document "Section II - Schedule of Requirements", "The samples must be examples of the supplier’s own past work. UNOPS is providing examples of technical content to ensure that the type and complexity of content requested is clear, however the UNOPS examples cannot be used by the supplier as samples. The supplier must submit samples of their own past work.At least one of the samples provided by the supplier,for each language, must be highly technical and targeted at an expert audience, e.g., technical engineering specifications, detailed guidance for architectural designs, or related. Both of the examples provided by UNOPS (source language only) are considered highly technical and targeted at an expert audience." You are welcome to remove any identifying information from the samples in order to preserve confidentiality, as long as the samples meet the requirements set in this tender.In addition, with regard to the financial proposal, would it not be better to have forecasted quantities of work for each price line in order to make a more pragmatic proposal, because the prices depend not on the repetition of words in a text but on the quantity of work that will be submitted by UNOPS during the three years. This tender is not for a single translation project but multiple projects over the course of several years. These projects are not known yet so there is no estimate of word count available. This tender is to establish a Long-Term Agreement (framework agreement) that will allow UNOPS to order directly translation services on a need basis from the LTA holders. Please also note that the financial proposal form allows the bidders to input their unit prices for different levels of repetitions and therefore takes into account any future scenario. It also includes a section on discounts based on work volume.