The U.S. State Department recently awarded a contract worth $541,250 to a foreign research firm to conduct public opinion surveys as part of an “Arab omnibus study” in at least eight foreign countries beginning this month. Significant portions of the justification documents were redacted, including the name of the firm awarded the contract (additionally, one entire page of the document is blacked out). According to the documents, the award was a “sole source” contract as market research found that no U.S. or other foreign firm could handle the assignment at a competitive cost.

The surveys are to include 1,000 adults and will be conducted in three waves. The first two will include six countries in November 2014 and April 2015, and the third will cover eight countries in July-August 2015. The survey results are to include twenty unique data sets. The documents do not details the nature of the questions to be asked, and the State Department did not respond to an inquiry about the questions to be asked and the countries where the surveys are to be conducted.