Inactive

The purpose of Amendment 3 is to extend the quotation due date to 12:00PM ET, September 6, 2024. The purpose of Amendment 2 is to extend the quotation due date to 5:00PM ET, September 3, 2024. The pur... The purpose of Amendment 3 is to extend the quotation due date to 12:00PM ET, September 6, 2024. The purpose of Amendment 2 is to extend the quotation due date to 5:00PM ET, September 3, 2024. The purpose of Amendment 1 is to provide the following Question(s) & Answer(s): Question: Is this a brand-new contract or is there an incumbent performing these services? If there is an incumbent, please provide the current/previous contract number? Answer: The contract number for the incumbent contract is 50310219P0072. End of Amendment The United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), 100 F Street, NE, Washington, DC 20549, intends to procure access to a commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) data subscription for intraday price quotes (bid and ask prices) for index and single-name credit default swaps (CDSs) data, including (a) CDSs written on corporate bonds, municipal bonds, sovereign bonds, loans, asset-backed securities, (b) CDSs written on indexes of corporate bonds, municipal bonds, sovereign bonds, loans, asset-backed securities, and (c) tranches of index CDSs. NOTE: The SEC will only accept responses from companies that currently have a COTS product that meets all requirements in Attachment 1 – Requirements List. The SEC is NOT seeking sources for development of a new solution or customization of a product to acquire/add the required capabilities. Clearly state in in your response that your solution is a COTS product. Additionally, all offerors must have an active registration in the System for Award Management (www.sam.gov) by the submission deadline of this RFQ. (i) This is a combined synopsis/solicitation for commercial items prepared in accordance with the format in Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) Subpart 12.6, as supplemented with additional information included in this notice. This announcement constitutes the only solicitation; quotes are being requested and a written solicitation will not be issued. It is the offeror's responsibility to monitor this site for the release of amendments (if any). (ii) The Request for Quote (RFQ) number is 50310224Q0138 and shall be referenced on any quote submitted. (iii) This solicitation document and incorporated provisions and clauses are those in effect through Federal Acquisition Circular (FAC) 2024-05, effective May 22, 2024. Provisions and clauses incorporated by reference have the same force and effect as if they were given in full text. (iv) The North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) code for this acquisition is 519290 and the small business size standard is 1000 employees. This RFQ is being solicited on an unrestricted basis. (v) The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) intends to award a firm fixed price contract in accordance with FAR Subpart 13.5 in conjunction with FAR Part 12, Acquisition of Commercial Items. See Attachment 2 – Pricing for details. (vi) Description of requirements: Access to a commercially available data subscription for intraday price quotes (bid and ask prices) for index and single-name credit default swaps (CDSs) data, including (a) CDSs written on corporate bonds, municipal bonds, sovereign bonds, loans, asset-backed securities, (b) CDSs written on indexes of corporate bonds, municipal bonds, sovereign bonds, loans, asset-backed securities, and (c) tranches of index CDSs in accordance with the attached Requirements List (Attachment 1). (vii) Period of performance: Base Year (12-months) and four (4) twelve (12) month Option Years. Place of Delivery: U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, 100 F Street, NE, Washington DC, 20549. (viii) The provisions at FAR 52.212-1, Instructions to Offerors – Commercial Products and Commercial Services (SEP 2023), applies to this acquisition. The following addenda to FAR provision 52.212-1, Instructions to Offerors –Commercial Products and Commercial Services (SEP 2023) applies to this acquisition: The SEC reserves the right to not make award resulting from this solicitation and the SEC will not pay any contractor quote/bid costs for this solicitation. Quotation Requirements: A written technical quote and a separate written price quote are required for this solicitation. Your quote must be based on the terms of this RFQ. Any exceptions, deviations or conditional assumptions to the requirements of the solicitation must be clearly stated and explained within the first two pages of both the technical and price quote. Exceptions, Deviations, and conditional assumptions may render your company’s offer non-compliant and ineligible for award. Quotation Submission and Due Dates: Offerors shall submit quotes electronically to turnerc@sec.gov no later than 12:00PM ET, August 29, 2024. All questions shall be submitted to turnerc@sec.gov no later than 12:00PM ET, August 22, 2024. Oral questions (telephone) will not be addressed or entertained. Offerors shall follow the guidelines below in preparing its response. All documents should be submitted electronically in MS Word/Excel or compatible format using Times New Roman Font, Font Size 11, with 1.00 inch page margins. Technical Quotation: Offerors shall submit product offering brochure/information that demonstrates their technical ability to meet all of the requirements outlined in the Requirements List. It is anticipated that the Contractor’s existing data documentation will meet the needs of the SEC. However, in the case that the documentation is insufficient, the Contractor must provide additional information to demonstrate how the product offering meets the requirements in the Requirements List. Statements such as, “the offeror understands,” or “the offeror will comply” are not adequate. Similarly, merely restating or reformulating the requirements may render your quote non-compliant and ineligible for award. Your company’s technical quote must provide specific details on how your company’s COTS solution will fully meet the SEC’s technical requirements. There is a 10 page limitation, excluding cover page for the written technical quote. The technical quote shall not refer to any pricing information. Offerors shall provide a gratuitous product demonstration to provide a demonstration of your product’s ability to meet all requirements in Attachment 1. The product demonstration will be done via WebEx and is tentatively scheduled for the days following the quote due date. The product demonstration shall be no longer than 60 minutes with the last 15 minutes reserved for questions and answers. Price Quotation: The SEC requests a fixed price quote that provides a separate price for the Base Period and each Option Period CLIN using Attachment 2 - Pricing. The price quote shall include a breakdown that shows the price of each pricing element if there are separate price elements. The price for each CLIN shall be inclusive of all fees. The SEC requests all available price discounts. There is no page limitation for the price quote. The price quote must provide the offeror’s Unique Entity Identifier number (UEI) and must confirm that the offeror has active registration in the System Award Management (www.sam.gov). Offeror shall submit a completed Attachment 3 - FAR Provision 52.209-7, Information Regarding Responsibility Matters. License Agreement: The offeror shall submit any applicable license agreements with their quote submission. IMPORTANT NOTICE TO CONTRACTORS: All prospective awardees are required to have an active SAM registration at time of quote submission and are required to maintain an active registration during the life of the contract. SAM can be accessed at https://www.sam.gov. (ix) The provision at FAR 52.212-2, Evaluation – Commercial Products and Commercial Services (NOV 2021) applies to this acquisition. (a) The Government will award a contract resulting from this solicitation to the responsible offeror whose offer conforming to the solicitation will be most advantageous to the Government, price and other factors considered. The following factor(s) shall be used to evaluate offers: (i) Technical: The Government will evaluate the vendor’s technical ability to meet or exceed the requirements outlined in the Requirements List. The SEC will use the offeror's written submission as well as Product Demonstration to evaluate their ability to meet or exceed the requirements listed in the Requirements List. (ii) Price The SEC will use comparative evaluation of the quotes to include technical quote, oral product demonstration, and price quote, to determine the best response. The SEC will compare technical quotes and price quotes with each other in a uniform and fair manner to determine which quote provides the SEC what it needs. It is an assessment of which response is “best” as a whole. The SEC reserves the right to select a response that provides benefit to the SEC that exceeds the minimum but is not required to do so. Responses may exceed the minimum requirements but the SEC is not requesting or accepting alternate quotations. Once the SEC determines the offeror that is best-suited (i.e., the apparent successful offeror), the SEC reserves the right to communicate with only that offeror to address any remaining issues, if necessary, and finalize a purchase order with that offeror. These issues may include technical and price. If the parties cannot successfully address any remaining issues, as determined pertinent at the sole discretion of the government, the government reserves the right to communicate with the next best-suited offeror based on the original analysis and address any remaining issues. Once the SEC has begun communications with the next best-suited offeror, no further communications with the previous offeror will be entertained until after the purchase order has been awarded. This process shall continue until an agreement is successfully reached and a purchase order is awarded. (b) Options. The Government will evaluate offers for award purposes by adding the total price for all options to the total price for the basic requirement. The Government may determine that an offer is unacceptable if the option prices are significantly unbalanced. Evaluation of options shall not obligate the Government to exercise the option(s). (c) A written notice of award or acceptance of an offer, mailed or otherwise furnished to the successful offeror within the time for acceptance specified in the offer, shall result in a binding contract without further action by either party. Before the offer’s specified expiration time, the Government may accept an offer (or part of an offer), whether or not there are negotiations after its receipt, unless a written notice of withdrawal is received before award. (x) The offeror shall include a completed copy of the provision at 52.212-3, Offeror Representations and Certification –Commercial Products and Commercial Services (May 2024), with its offer. An offeror shall complete only paragraphs (b) of this provision if the offeror has completed the annual representations and certifications electronically via http://www.acquisition.gov . If an offeror has not completed the annual representations and certifications electronically at the System for Award Management (SAM) website, the offeror shall complete only paragraphs (c) through (o) of this provision. (xi) FAR clause 52.212-4, Contract Terms and Conditions –Commercial Products and Commercial Services (NOV 2023), applies to this acquisition. (xii) FAR clause 52.212-5, Contract Terms and Conditions Required to Implement Statutes or Executive Orders –Commercial Products and Commercial Services (May 2024) applies to this acquisition. In Section b, the following clauses apply: 52.203-6, Restrictions on Subcontractor Sales to the Government (Jun 2020), with Alternate I (Nov 2021) 52.204-10, Reporting Executive compensation and First-Tier Subcontract Awards (Jun 2020) 52.204-14, Service Contract Reporting Requirements (Oct 2016) 52.204-27, Prohibition on a ByteDance Covered Application (JUN 2023) 52.204-30, Federal Acquisition Supply Chain Security Act Orders- Prohibition. (DEC 2023) 52.209-6, Protecting the Government’s Interest When Subcontracting with Contractors Debarred, Suspended, or Proposed for Debarment (Nov 2021) 52.209-9, Updates of Publicly Available Information Regarding Responsibility Matters (Oct 2018) 52.219-8, Utilization of Small Business Concerns (Feb 2024) 52.219-28, Post Award Small Business Program Rerepresentation (Feb 2024) 52.222-3, Convict Labor (June 2003) 52.222-21, Prohibition of Segregated Facilities (Apr 2015) 52.222-26, Equal Opportunity (Sep 2016) 52.222-35, Equal Opportunity for Veterans (Jun 2020) 52.222-36, Equal Opportunity for Workers with Disabilities (Jun 2020) 52.222-37, Employment Reports on Veterans (Jun 2020) 52.222-40, Notification of Employee Rights Under the National Labor Relations Act (Dec 2010) 52.222-50, Combating Trafficking in Persons (Nov 2021) 52.225-13, Restrictions on Certain Foreign Purchases (Feb 2021) 52.226-8, Encouraging Contractor Policies to Ban Text Messaging while Driving (May 2024) 52.232-33, Payment by Electronic Funds Transfer— System for Award Management (Oct 2018) (xiii)The following additional terms and conditions are applicable to this acquisition: FAR Clauses Incorporated By Reference: FAR 52.204-18 - Commercial and Government Entity Code Maintenance (Aug 2020) FAR 52.232-40 - Providing Accelerated Payments to Small Business Subcontractors (Mar 2023) FAR 52.217-8 Option to Extend Services (NOV 1999) The Government may require continued performance of any services within the limits and at the rates specified in the contract. These rates may be adjusted only as a result of revisions to prevailing labor rates provided by the Secretary of Labor. The option provision may be exercised more than once, but the total extension of performance hereunder shall not exceed 6 months. The Contracting Officer may exercise the option by written notice to the Contractor within 15 days of contract expiration. FAR 52.217-9 Option to Extend the Term of the Contract (MAR 2000) (a) The Government may extend the term of this contract by written notice to the Contractor at any time within the period of performance provided that the Government gives the Contractor a preliminary written notice of its intent to extend 15 days before the contract expires. The preliminary notice does not commit the Government to an extension. (b) If the Government exercises this option, the extended contract shall be considered to include this option clause. (c) The total duration of this contract, including the exercise of any options under this clause, shall not exceed five (5) years. FAR 52.252-2 Clauses Incorporated by Reference (Feb 1998) This contract incorporates one or more clauses by reference, with the same force and effect as if they were given in full text. Upon request, the Contracting Officer will make their full text available. Also, the full text of a clause may be accessed electronically at this/these address(es): https://www.acquisition.gov/?q=browsefar Applicable SEC instructions: 5003.05 Submission of Invoices – DELPHI eInvoicing System (January 2022) a. The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) will only accept electronic invoices submitted through the Delphi eInvoicing system on an annual basis. b. Payment system registration. All persons accessing the Delphi eInvoicing web-portal will be required to have their own unique user Delphi eInvoicing ID and password and be credentialed through login.gov. (1) Electronic authentication. See www.login.gov for instructions. Click on the following link for instructions on establishing a login.gov account: https://login.gov/help/creating-an-account/how-do-i-create-an-account-with-logingov/. (2) To create a login.gov account, the user will need a valid email address and a working phone number. The user will create a password and then login.gov will reply with an email confirming the email address. (3) In order to set up a new user account or make changes to existing vendor Delphi eInvoice users who will submit invoices through the eInvoicing web-portal for payment and tracking purposes, notify iSupplier@sec.gov and include the contract/order number, the user's full name, valid email address (group mailboxes are not recommended), and current phone number of all vendor users. Vendor users will be notified via e-mail when the account is created. The vendor user will be provided detailed instructions for logging into their Delphi eInvoicing account. (4) Training on Delphi. To facilitate use of DELPHI, comprehensive user information is available at http://einvoice.esc.gov (5) Account Management. Vendors are responsible to contact the Delphi Help Desk when their firm's points of contacts will no longer be submitting invoices so they can be removed from the system. Instructions for contacting the Delphi Help Desk can be found at http://einvoice.esc.gov c. Contractors are cautioned against submitting an invoice prior to goods and services being received/accepted. Invoices submitted prematurely may be rejected. Software license maintenance and subscriptions may be invoiced at the beginning of the contract period of performance. d. The SEC's Delphi eInvoicing system is managed by the Enterprise Services Center (ESC). In order to receive payment and in accordance with the Prompt Payment Act, all invoices submitted as attachments in the Delphi eInvoicing web-portal shall contain the following: (1) Company logo or letterhead (2) Company name and payment address (3) Company Point of Contact (POC) for the invoice with phone and e-mail (4) Invoice number and invoice date (5) Billing period (6) SEC Contract number (7) Task/Delivery Order number (if applicable) (8) SEC Contracting Officer's Representative (COR name) (9) Amount billed (by CLIN), current and cumulative (10) Total amount billed this period (11) Cumulative total billed to date (12) Brief Description of Services Performed - General description only e. If the contract includes allowances for travel, all invoices which include charges pertaining to travel expenses will catalog a breakdown of reimbursable expenses with the appropriate receipts to substantiate the travel expenses. 5004.00 Appointment of Contracting Officer’s Representative (COR) (January 2022) a. A Securities and Exchange Commission COR has been designated for administration and information relating to this contract. The SEC may also assign one or more Alternate CORs for this contract. The COR may not re-delegate his or her authority; only the CO has this authority. A COR Appointment Letter (and ACOR Appointment Letter if applicable) detailing the designations will be e-mailed to the contractor. b. The COR will manage the contract in coordination with the CO and within the terms of the contract. The COR's responsibilities include reviewing invoices and charges by the Contractor, informing the CO of areas where exceptions are taken, and accepting or rejecting invoices in the SEC's financial system. The COR shall be the primary point of contact responsible for communicating administrative guidance for on-boarding and off-boarding of Contractor Personnel, mandatory trainings, government closures, and other events as necessary. Unless otherwise specified in this contract, inspection and acceptance of supplies and/or services to be furnished under this contract will be performed by the COR. c. Only the CO has the authority to change the terms and conditions of this contract. The COR may request a contract modification, but the CO will make the final determination. The COR may not agree to or issue a change to the contract terms and conditions. In the event the Contractor effects changes to the contract at the direction of any person other than the CO, the changes will be considered to have been made without any authority and no adjustments will be made to the contract. 6002.00 Type of Contract (January 2022) This is a firm-fixed price type contract/agreement. 6012.02 SEC Section 508 Requirements (January 2022) a. Pursuant to Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 (29 U.S.C.794d), as amended by the Workforce Investment Act of 1998, all Information and Communication Technology (ICT) products and services developed, acquired, maintained, and/or used under this contract/order must comply with the Information and Communication Technology Accessibility Provisions set forth by the Architectural and Transportation Barriers Compliance Board (also referred to as the "Access Board") in FAR 39.203 (a). The complete text of Section 508 Final Provisions can be accessed at Section 508 Law. b. All ICT products must comply with the following requirements. Descriptions of the requirements are viewable at the link Section 508 Standards. c. Offerors that fail to demonstrate compliance with the above requirements, may be eliminated from further consideration for award. d. The offeror shall indicate for each line item in the schedule whether each product or service is compliant or non-compliant with the accessibility requirements at 36 CFR 1194 using a Voluntary Product Accessibility Template (VPAT 2.4). Further, the solicitation response must indicate where full details of compliance can be found (e.g., vendor's website or other exact location). e. Offerors to this solicitation must provide any additional detailed information necessary for determining applicable Section 508 standards conformance. If an offeror claims its products and/or services, including ICT deliverables such as electronic documents, web content or electronic reports, meet applicable Section 508 standards, and it is later determined by the Government - i.e., after award of a contract/order, that products and/or services delivered do not conform to the described accessibility, remediation of the products and/or services to the level of conformance specified in the contract will be the responsibility of the offeror at its expense. 6014.00 Use of Contractor Data and/or Materials (January 2022) The Contractor acknowledges and agrees to the following: The SEC anticipates using the data and/or materials to conduct analyses for use in reports, studies, memoranda, and presentations. The SEC anticipates the following types of situation where analyses based on underlying data may be made public: by the SEC itself (E.g., SEC rulemaking and/or analysis done as part of an inspection or enforcement action), by SEC staff where the SEC is directing or facilitating the publication (e.g., a staff study in response to a Congressional request), by SEC staff facilitating their own private publication where the Commission has not taken a position regarding the publication of the analysis(e.g., a research report to be submitted by the individual staff to an academic conference or journal), and a former employee of the SEC who has substantially completed the analysis while on staff and is facilitating his/her own private publication( e.g., a research report to be submitted to an academic conference or journal). In all of these situations, only "insubstantial amounts" of the licensed data and/or material would be made public and no raw data would be made public, the authors would agree to abide by all contractual terms and conditions, and as the owner/licensor of the data the Contractor would receive attribution and be cited as the data source. "Insubstantial amounts" means an amount that has no independent commercial value and could not be used as a substitute for the service or product or any part of it. 6018.00 Contractor Performance Evaluation (January 2022) a. In accordance with FAR 42.1502, the SEC will submit an electronic record of the Contractor's performance to the Contractor Performance Assessment Reporting System (CPARS) for processing at least annually and at the time the work under a contract or order is completed. b. The Contractor's information for CPARS is pulled from the Contractor's entry in SAM under the Past Performance Point of Contact for the company. c. The Contractor's designated representative will have the ability to review, comment, and state whether or not the Contractor agrees with the evaluation and return the evaluation to the Contracting Officer (CO) per FAR 42.1503. The SEC's evaluation will be available to search in CPARS after 14 calendar days for Government use in evaluating the Contractor's past performance as part of a source selection action. d. If the Contractor desires a meeting to discuss the evaluation, it must be requested, in writing to the CO, no later than seven calendar days from the receipt of the evaluation. e. It shall be the sole responsibility of the Contractor to inform the CO or COR in writing of any changes to the Contractor's designated representative. Any such changes do not require a modification to the terms and conditions of the contract/order. 6027.00 Disclosure of Information (November 2023) (a) The Contractor shall not refer to this contract in press releases, announcements, commercial advertising or similar promotions, or other publications in such a manner as to state or imply that the product or service provided is endorsed or preferred by the Federal Government or is considered by the Government to be superior to other products or services. (b) The Contractor and those acting on behalf of the Contractor shall not release to anyone outside the Contractor's organization any classified or unclassified information, regardless of medium (e.g., film, tape, document), pertaining to any part of this contract or any program related to this contract, unless: (1) The Contracting Officer has given prior written approval; or (2) The information is otherwise in the public domain before the date of release. (c) ?Requests for approval shall identify the specific information to be released, the medium to be used, and the purpose for the release.??The Contractor shall submit its request to the Contracting Officer at least 30 days before the proposed date for release. (d) The Contractor agrees to include a similar requirement in each subcontract under this contract. Subcontractors shall submit requests for authorization to release through the prime contractor to the Contracting Officer. (e) The provisions and restrictions of this Instruction are consistent with and do not supersede, conflict with, or otherwise alter the obligations, rights, or liabilities created by existing statute or Executive order relating to (1) classified information, (2) communications to Congress, (3) the reporting to an Inspector General of a violation of any law, rule, or regulation, or mismanagement, a gross waste of funds, an abuse of authority, or a substantial and specific danger to public health or safety, or (4) any other whistleblower protection. The definitions, requirements, obligations, rights, sanctions, and liabilities created by controlling Executive orders and statutory provisions are incorporated into this Instruction and are controlling. 7001.00 Commercial Supplier Agreements – Unenforceable Clauses (a) Purpose The purpose of this SEC Instruction (SECI) is to implement the FAR 12.302(c) Class Waiver approved by the SEC Senior Procurement Executive that addresses conflicting and/or problematic terms in Commercial Supplier Agreements (CSAs) (e.g., license agreements, terms of service (TOS), terms of sale or purchase, End User License Agreements (EULAs), and similar agreements). (b) Order of Precedence When FAR 52.212-4 is present in the solicitation or contract at issue, its paragraphs are tailored to reflect: (s)(2) ('The Assignments, Disputes, Payments, Invoice, Other Compliances, Compliance with Laws Unique to Government Contracts, Unauthorized Obligations paragraphs of this clause, and SECI 7001.00, Commercial Supplier Agreements - Unenforceable Clauses.'), and (s)(4) ('Addenda to this solicitation or contract, including any license agreements as amended by SECI 7001.00, Commercial Supplier Agreements - Unenforceable Clauses.') (c) Unenforceable Clauses When any supply or service acquired under this contract is subject to a CSA, the following language shall be deemed incorporated into the CSA. As used herein, 'this agreement' means the CSA: (1) Notwithstanding any other provision of this agreement, when the end user is the SEC, the following shall apply: (i) Applicability. This agreement is a part of a contract between the commercial supplier and the U.S. Government for the acquisition of the supply or service that necessitates a license or other similar legal instrument (including all contracts, task orders, and delivery orders under FAR Part 12.) (ii) End user. This agreement shall bind the SEC as the end user but shall not operate to bind a Government employee or person acting on behalf of the Government in his or her personal capacity. (iii) Law and disputes. This agreement is governed by Federal law. (A) Any language purporting to subject the U.S. Government to the laws of a U.S. state, U.S. territory, district, or municipality, or a foreign nation, except where Federal law expressly provides for the application of such laws, is hereby deleted. (B) Any language requiring dispute resolution in a specific forum or venue that is different from that prescribed by applicable Federal law is hereby deleted. (C) Any language prescribing a different time period for bringing an action than that prescribed by applicable Federal law in relation to a dispute is hereby deleted. (iv) Continued performance. The supplier or licensor shall not unilaterally revoke, terminate or suspend any rights granted to the Government except as allowed by this contract. If the supplier or licensor believes the ordering activity to be in breach of the agreement, it shall pursue its rights under the Contract Disputes Act or other applicable Federal statute while continuing performance per FAR 52.212-4(d). (v) Arbitration; equitable or injunctive relief. In the event of a claim or dispute arising under or relating to this agreement, a binding arbitration shall not be used unless specifically authorized by agency guidance, and equitable or injunctive relief, including the award of attorney fees, costs or interest, may be awarded against the U.S. Government only when explicitly provided by statute (e.g., Prompt Payment Act or Equal Access to Justice Act). (vi) Updating terms. (A) After award, the contractor may unilaterally revise terms if they are not material. A material change is defined as: (1) Terms that change Government rights or obligations; (2) Terms that increase Government prices; (3) Terms that decrease overall level of service; or (4) Terms that limit any other Government right addressed elsewhere in this contract. (B) For revisions that will materially change the terms of the contract, the revised CSA must be incorporated into the contract using a bilateral modification. (C) Any agreement terms or conditions unilaterally revised subsequent to award that are inconsistent with any material term or provision of this contract shall not be enforceable against the Government, and the Government shall not be deemed to have consented to them. (vii) No automatic renewals. If any license or service tied to periodic payment is provided under this agreement (e.g., annual software maintenance or annual lease term), such license or service shall not renew automatically upon expiration of its current term without prior express consent by an authorized Government representative. (viii) Indemnification (by licensor). Any clause of this agreement requiring the commercial supplier or licensor to defend or indemnify the end user is hereby amended to provide that the U.S. Department of Justice has the sole right to represent the United States in any such action, in accordance with 28 U.S.C. § 516. (ix) Audits. Any clause of this agreement permitting the commercial supplier or licensor to audit the end user's compliance with this agreement is hereby amended as follows: (A) Discrepancies found in an audit ...