Provision of Conference Interpreting Services

New clarification added: Dear Bids team,After analyzing the clarifications, we would like to highlight some contradictory information.Language regime:The 2018-01-30 you wrote: “English will be interpreted into both French and Spanish[...]. If participants in the booth have a question they will ask the interpreter to translate their question to English for the main floor.”The 2018-02-07 you wrote: “We are requesting a two-language serviced from each booth”The 2018-02-12 you wrote: “interpretation is going to be only from English to Spanish and French”According to AIIC standards in line with UN-AIIC agreement:If the language regime is interpretation from English into French and Spanish, 2 booths and 2 interpreters per booth will be needed (team of 4 interpreters)If the language regime is interpretation from English into French and Spanish, and from French and Spanish into English, 2 booths and 3 interpreters per booth will be needed or 3 booths and 2 interpreters per booth will be needed (team of 6 interpreters) Could you clarify what will be the language regime?  Working hours:The 2018-02-07 you wrote “The actual working hours will be less than 10 h a day, moreover it will be including breaks which is in line with our agreement.”The 2018-02-12 you wrote “We will have 2 sessions that include breaks, interpreting duration should not exceed 6 hours a day.”If the interpreting duration should not exceed 6 hours a day (3 hours interpreting without break per session maximum), there is no point to have a fourth interpreter per booth, according the UN-AIIC agreement.The Language Regime is from English to French and Spanish. We can't assert the exact number hours now, but as intitative, it should not exceed 6 hours a day. 

New amendment added #5: To extend the deadlines, as a request for clarification was recieved last week and not answered - awaiting SEforALL event management feedback on this.

New clarification added: Dear SirsWe have seen that the number of interpreters has changed from 3 to 4. Would they be considered to work full day? Kindly let us know the working hours for interpreters.Thank you so muchWe will have 2 sessions that include breaks, interpreting duration should not exceed 6 hours a day.

New clarification added: Dear Team,Thank you for the recent notification regarding increasing the number of interpreters to 4 per booth, according to AIIC standards. We understand this decision as the working hours of this event, according to the current programme, exceed the AIIC standard of maximum 2 sessions of 3 hours plus breaks, per interpreter. However, can you therefore confirm that no relay will be required? As per AIIC standards, pure booths are a prerequisite. Therefore, we would expect three pure booths to be included in the tender to avoid relay. We look forward to your clarification so that we may revise and resubmit our offer accordingly.  It should not exceed 2 sessions that includes breaks, interpretation is going to be only from English to Spanish and French, therefore two booths should be enough.

New clarification added: Dear Bids Team, Following the discussion regarding the UN-AIIC agreement.In the RFQ, there is no indication regarding the fact that the interpreters need to be AIIC or the candidate needs to be AIIC agency.As we are not an AIIC agency, we are not concerned by this UN-AIIC agreement and we can provide you professional and quality services with 6 interpreters instead of 8. And with 3 dual booths.Could you allow us to make an alternative offer, which will be cheaper with the same quality level.Our RFQ is an open competetion to all bidders - Your proposal should be in line with our technical requirements stated on the RFQ/2018/3006

New clarification added: Could you please clarify the use of the third interpreter? Triple booths are not easily found nor budgeted (most providers do not have them prepared for three interpreters). If the rationale behind the third interpreter is to comply with a maximm of 6 working hours then you would need two extra interpreters since according to AIIC standards interpretation sessions may not be performed individually but within a team of two interpreters.The number of interpreters have been increased.

New amendment added #4: To revise Returnable Section II and III to be in line with the agreement between UN and AIIC and extend the deadlines. 

New clarification added: Dear Bids Team,I hope you're well.Could you advise us of the following please:I understand the agenda for this event has not been provided, but looking at this on the SEforALL website, I notice there are 3 parallel sessions each day. Could you advise if interpreting will be required at 1 or more of these sessions?Further could you confirm that no interpreting will be required during the coffee intervals or lunch break?I look forward to hearing from you and wish you a pleasant day ahead.Yes, interpretation is only needed on the main plenary stage (not the parallel ones), and not needed during breaks.

New clarification added: With regards to the recent requirement of including 3 interpreters instead of 2, I would like to kindly ask whether it would be possible to go back to the previous number of required interpreters. As a professional conference interpreting provider, we are able to guarantee a high-quality service with 2 interpreters per booth (2 French<>English and 2 Spanish<>English) who would work the whole day (including extra hours) without the need of a back up of a third interpreter. I would like to bring your attention to the fact that having 2 interpreters per booth, as initially requested, would not infringe on the quality of the mission.We are requesting a two-language serviced from each booth, therefore, at least three interpreters should be assigned - this is in line with our agreement.

New clarification added: Regarding the recent requirement of including 3 interpreters instead of 2, I would like to kindly ask you to reconsider the final number of the interpreters to be included in this mission.We are afraid that having 3 interpreters in each booth would not really solve the issue regarding the lenght of the days, as 1 intepreter of each booth would have to stay at the event for the whole day (almost 10 hours), which, under the UN-AIIC agreement, is longer than interpreters are allowed to work. Moreover, the equipment you specify in the request form is not suitable for 3 interpreters. We have checked the option of installing triple booths instead of double ones and have been informed by our partners in Portugal that for the tme being triple booths are not available, as this is not an usual request in Portugal.Taking the above into account, in order to comply with the agreement regulations, instead of 3, we would suggest having 4 interpreters per booth (4 French<>English and 4 Spanish<>English) to work in morning and afternoon shifts (approximately 5 hours each). Could you kindly inform us whether you see this feasible?The actual working hours will be less than 10 h a day, moreover it will be including breaks which is in line with our agreement. Hence, there is no need for the fourth interpreter. 

New clarification added: Dear Bids Team,I hope you're well.Could you clarify the following in light of the amendments made to the RFQ:When submitting the documents required, we have noticed that the Forms mentioned in the amended RFQ do not match those that are listed on the portal, such as Form E, and also, the Forms are listed in the wrong order and with the wrong titles of the forms.Could you advise which form contained within the new RFQ should be uploaded to which section please?Apologies for the confusion, the checklist has been revised.

New amendment added #3: To amend the check list 

New clarification added: Dear Bids Team,On the vendor submission category, is indicated as mandatory this document :Document name :  Official certificate of Registration as translation service providerDocument category :  Quality certificateDocument is :  mandatoryCould you give us further details about the type of Official certificate that you are looking for and information it should include ? Regular letter stating that your company is certified/registered provider of this kind of services should be sufficient - no special format is necessary.

New clarification added: Good morning,Given the recent requirement of including 3 interpreters instead of 2, and in the light of Form E (CV's of proposed key personnel) we would like to request an extension in time in order to provide the best third interpreter for each language pair.Thank you.The RFQ has been extended.

New amendment added #2: To be extended for 5 days 

New clarification added: Dear Bids Team,I hope you're well.I was wondering if you could clarify the following for us:Within the ToR, it states that you require 2 interpreters for English-Spanish and 2 for English-French. However, in accordance with the AIIC-UN agreement that i'm no doubt you're aware of, and the length of the days, could you advise if the provision of either 3 booths, or 3 interpreters in 2 booths would be acceptable? Document Section II and Section II have been revised and updated to our RFQThe equipment supplier we woek with in Lisbon knows the Covento do Beato well; as the requirement states that 35 receivers are required (thus we assume there will be 35 participants that require interpretation), could you advise if the meeting will be taking place in the Cloisters or a smaller room? CloistersWith regards to the administrative support mentioned you require, could you clarify what this is? Anything related to the set up, materials and equipments is the bidders responsibility .Section III of the ToR mentions both interpretation services and translation services. Could you advise if by translation services, you are referring to written translation services, or you are referring to interpretation services? This refers to interpretation services. We do not require written translation onsite.Could you clarify if you are aware of them, the criteria allowing an organization to be legally able to provide services in Lisbon? That you are able to work in Lisbon and legally can operate in Lisbon, Portugal.I look forward to hearing from you and wish you a pleasant day ahead. 

New clarification added: Dear Sir/Madam,Regarding this RFQ, We have two questions as below:Question 1According to the tender, the Conference interpreting services required are twofold: A) Technical equipment B) Conference interpreters (people).We understand the equipment has to be in place from 8:00 till 18:30 on May 2 and 3. But what is the exact working schedule for the interpreters? Please provide agenda of the meeting so we can assess the exact needs for interpreters.Tentatively the program runs from 09:00-18:30 each day where your bid should be submitted accordingly.Question 2According to the Agreement for conference interpreters’ services signed by the UN, which applies to UNOPS, there should be 3 booths to cover all language combinations. The tender mentions only 2 which would be a breach in the agreement.Section II and Section III documents have been revised and highlighted in yellow - please refer to them for the number of interpreters .

New amendment added #1: To revise Returnable Section II and III to be in line with the agreement between UN and AIIC.

New clarification added: Dear Sirs,We would like to know if the set-up for the conference would be, En as a floor language interpreted into both French and Spanish + both latter languages possible used on the floor for questions which would be interpreted by their respective booths back into En? The main language on the floor is English.  English will be interpreted into both French and Spanish into their respective booths.  If participants in the booth have a question they will ask the interpreter to translate their question to English for the main floor. 

New clarification added: Dear Team,Thank you for your message. However, from the Form B, suppliers are requested to provide costs for transmitters, receivers, headsets, booth etc. Please can you advise and resend Form B without the equipment requirement if this is the case?Thanks for coming back, we would like to elaborate more as follows :We will provide sound equipment at the forum so the vendor does not need to provide this. However, the vendor only needs to provide the interpretation equipment as listed in the terms of reference (Form B) 

New clarification added: Dear Team,Please can you confirm that a PA System will be provided for the conference? Therefore we would only need to include conference interpreting equipment as per volumes requested in your SoR?There will be a PA system at the workshop.  There is no requirement for the supplier to provide interpreting equipment.