Submit Applications for Travel and Logistics Program for Training Support

Deadline: 19-Oct-21

The Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs (INL) of the U.S. Department of State in Mexico seeks applications from qualified organizations to carry out a project to provide programmatic, logistical, travel, and administrative support to the capacity-building program of INL Mexico.

The capacity-building program provides training and other relevant activities to appropriate participants with the overall goal of supporting the goals of the US-Mexico Security Cooperation Capacity-Building Assistance Program.

Goals

The U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs (INL) works to keep Americans safe at home by countering international crime, illegal drugs, and instability abroad. INL helps countries deliver justice and fairness by strengthening their police, courts, and corrections systems. These efforts reduce the amount of crime and illegal drugs reaching U.S. shores.
The goal of this project is to deliver prompt and efficient programmatic, logistical, travel, and administrative services to support INL capacity-building programs.

Activities

Proposals should include, but are not limited to, the following activities:

Activity 1 – Travel Documents: The award recipient is responsible for collecting from INL, or from the participants if requested by INL, before travel, their bank account information, passports, and A-2.
Activity 2 – Travel Advances and Reimbursement: When required, the award recipient shall provide the participants, instructors, subject matter experts (SME), and speakers with a travel advance up to the maximum per diem amount authorized by the U.S. Department of State or lesser amount as determined by the award recipient and INL.
Activity 3 – Airline Tickets/Air Transportation: When required, the organization shall provide round-trip economy restricted-refundable airline tickets for travel of students, participants, speakers, instructors, SME, or police canines, as needed.
Activity 4 – Health, Travel, and Personal Property Insurance: When required, the award recipient shall provide each participant, when traveling, with up to the maximum amount of insurance. The applicant must ensure that all participants have the appropriate level of insurance before the travel begins.
Activity 5 – Ground Transportation: When required, the award recipient shall arrange the use of rented vehicles for individuals or groups to support INL capacity-building events. Ground transportation includes taxis, rented vehicles (sedans), pickup trucks, vans, or buses.
Activity 6 – Lodging: When required, the award recipient is responsible for providing participants with pre-paid lodging such as hotels or apartments using the U.S. Department of State approved per diem rates.
Activity 7 – Event Management: When required, the award recipient shall organize events that support INL’s capacity building objectives for the various parts of the GOM.
Activity 8 – Refreshments and Meals: When required, the award recipient is responsible for providing participants with government approved per diem or meals such as hot breakfast, lunch, and dinner at locations where the participant cannot obtain meals at public facilities.
Activity 9 – Event Close Out: The award recipient is responsible for gathering proof of participant attendance, closeout memos, or emails, and receipts to be reimbursed no later than 20 working days after the last day of the capacity-building event.
Activity 10 – Unused Funds Settlement: When required, the award recipient shall take required actions to recover unused funds resulting from cancellations by participants, vendors, facilities, etc.
Activity 11 – Unused E-ticket Funding Reporting: When required, the award recipient shall track unused e-tickets resulting from cancellations by participants, get reimbursement whenever possible, and/or reuse the tickets for other travelers. The recipients shall maintain a database of unused tickets and provide a monthly report to the GOR with this information.
Activity 12 – Database Management: The award recipient shall maintain accurate digital records of each participant, including name, parent organization, country of origin, event attended, dates, costs per participant, and final costs per activity INL project(s) that funded the event, and other information in a format mutually agreed to by the U.S. government and the recipient organization.
Activity 13 – INL Training Center (INLTC): When required, the award recipient shall provide administrative and logistical support in the training facilities identified by INL. The INLTC hosts a series of training events throughout the year for Government of Mexico participants.
Activity 14 – Payments Requests: It is recommended that the award recipient submits monthly requests for reimbursement to the Grants Officer (GO) and GOR.
Activity 15 – Prepare Event Materials and Presentations: The award recipient is responsible for preparing and printing event materials, including, but not limited to, travel and event agenda per participant, course packets, event guidebooks, attendance lists, event evaluation forms, name tags, and other materials, as required by INL.
Activity 16 – Interpretation and Translation Service: The award recipient may be responsible for providing translation of academic materials and interpretation services for national and international events.
Activity 17 – Leahy and Local Vetting: The awardee shall assist INL with the tracking status of personnel nominated to attend INL sponsored events.
Activity 18 – Operational Travel: The award recipient may be responsible for providing ad-hoc administrative and logistical support for travel with less of 24 hours in advance of operational travel.
Activity 19 – Exceptional Circumstances: The award recipient may be responsible for providing ad-hoc administrative and logistical support for travel with 24 or 48 hours in advance on rare occasions.
Activity 20 – Customer Service and Corrective Action Reports: Recipient will ensure their staff maintain professional and customer-service oriented environment. Recipient should provide logistic support during official Embassy working hours.
Activity 20- Training Tracking System: The award recipient will use INL’s TTS to monitor new travel or activity request, and to share any kind of files such as agendas, hotel information, and flight options.
Activity 21- Procurement of Goods and Services for Activities: In general, all procurement transactions shall be conducted, to the maximum extent practical, by open competition.
Activity 22- Admin and Support Team: The award recipient should have the sufficient administrative staff to perform the following duties: provide administrative support, office administrative and clerical services, maintain project documentation and correspondence, assists INL to analyze and anticipate requirements, articulate talking points and coordinate with host national counterparts, organize hard copy and electronic files for all program correspondence for improved retrieval, access, and audit, edit English and Spanish internal documents, prepare a variety of correspondence, reports, and presentations in both English and Spanish from drafts as requested by INL.
Activity 23- Virtual Trainings: The award recipient should be able to organize virtual events. These virtual events could be in form of Webinars, conferences, trainings, workshops, and/or internal/ external hybrid events.

Funding Information

Award amounts: awards may range from a minimum of $8,000,000 to a maximum of $9,000,000
Total available funding: $9,000,000
Anticipated program start date: February 2022

Participants and Audiences: INL will identify target audiences, specific demographics, and the region(s) in which the project will be implemented, including the approximate number of beneficiaries to be directly and indirectly impacted by project activities. The U.S. government estimates that a minimum of 3,000 and a maximum of 12,000 people will attend INL capacity-building events in a 12-month period. The number of participants per event can range from just a few to over one hundred or more.

Priority Countries: Mexico, United States, Colombia, El Salvador, Guatemala, Multiple countries throughout the region.

Eligibility Criteria

The following organizations are eligible to apply:
- U.S.-based non-profit/non-governmental organizations (NGOs);
- Foreign-based non-profits/non-governmental organizations (NGOs);
Applicants must also meet the following requirements to be eligible to apply to this NOFO:
- Must have demonstrated experience implementing similar travel related services, preferably in Mexico and the United States.
- Have existing, or the capacity to develop, active partnerships with the necessary partner organization(s) such as travel agencies, vendors such as airlines, rental car companies, hotels, translation services network with specialized topics, travel insurance enterprises in order to successfully fulfill the proposed program. Applicants must have demonstrated experience implementing similar education or capacity building programs. INL reserves the right to request additional background information on organizations that do not have previous experience administering similar programs and/or federal grant awards.
- Applicants must have the ability to produce course materials, deliver training, and conduct evaluations in Spanish and English. The applicant’s staff should be proficient in English in order to fulfill reporting requirements.
- Applicants must have existing, or the capacity to develop, active partnerships with stakeholders in order to successfully carry out the proposed program.
- Organizations may form a consortium and submit a combined proposal. However, one organization should be designated as the lead applicant.
- Applicants must be able to respond to the NOFO and be able to mobilize in a short period of time.