SOLICITATION NOTICE
R -- The scope of work is provide complete debt collection services for delinquent accounts over 90 days.
- Notice Date
- 1/19/2006
- Notice Type
- Solicitation Notice
- NAICS
- 541219
— Other Accounting Services
- Contracting Office
- US Army Medical Research Acquisition Activity, ATTN: MCMR-AAA, 820 Chandler Street, Frederick, MD 21702-5014
- ZIP Code
- 21702-5014
- Solicitation Number
- W81XWH-SR-5326-0700
- Response Due
- 2/3/2006
- Archive Date
- 4/4/2006
- Small Business Set-Aside
- N/A
- Description
- The U.S. Army Medical Research Acquisition Activity intends to acquire services for Debt Collection to assistant the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology (AFIP). The contract period of performance will be from date of award for a one base period of p erformance with four one year option periods. This is a combined synopsis/solicitation for commercial services prepared in accordance with the format in FAR Subpart 12.6, as supplemented with additional information included in this notice. This announcemen t constitutes the only solicitation; proposals are being requested and a written solicitation will not be issued. This is a Request For Quotation (RFQ and the solicitation documentation and incorporated provisions and clauses are those in effect through Federal Acquisition Circular 9-45. Acquire debt collection services for outstanding civilian consultation fees. The services provided by the contractor to the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology will be defined under complete debt collection services of delinquent accounts over 90 days. All services rendered are to support the business operation of the Institute. The Armed Forces Institute of Patholgy will transfer 500 to 600 accounts to the Contractor upon award after successful inplementation of the deliverables as outlined in Section Deliverables. Each account has an outstanding balance that is delinquent over 90 days. The only common characteristic is that each account will be categorized as delinquent and the minimum balance (principal, interest, penalty fees, fees, administrative cost) of an account to be transferrred is at least $ 500.00. The scope of work is to provide complete debt collection services for delinquent accounts over 90 days. The outstanding accounts are a result of second opinio n pathology cases and civilian consultations. The contractor must bring all accounts within good standing, recognizing the need for AFIP to maintain good relationships with all of its customers.The Contractor shall be responsible for providing Debt Colle ction Services. Service requirements include (1) Contractor should have previous experience working with Federal Government, and documented experience working in the collection activity in the medical/healthcare arena. (2) Accept and return account data for collection by electronic file transfer to the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology. (3) Contractor will be responsible for locating and contacting at a minimum of 95 percent of borrowers to demand payment of their debts to the Federal Government, otherw ise resolve their debt. (4) Return all accounts and associated records, accompanied by all required documentation, to the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology within the timeframes specified in the Contract, as oulined in the Deliverable Section. (5) Prote ct the Federal Government against loss of monies and loss of or damage to property. (6) Agree to indemnify, defend and hold the Federal Government harmless from all liability, loss, damages, claims and other expenses, including attorneys fees and court c osts, originating from or in connection with the Contractors performance under the contract. (7) Take all necessary steps, as warranted, by state or locality to insure that it is operating within the laws of the jurisdiction except insofar as Federal law supersedes these requirements, as specifically directed or approved by the Armed Forces Institute Pathology in the collection of monies owed to the Federal Government. This includes meeting all applicable State Licensing requirements, including the suces sful completion by Contractor of any State mandated exams prior to the first placement of accounts. IMPLEMENTATIONThe Contractor will use a soft approach with collection outstanding balances from contributors. No intimidation techniques should be exer cised for any reason, while always protecting the AFIPs good reputation and preserving AFIPs business relationships. All collection efforts will be fair, cou rteous, ethical, business-like and will project a positive image.Contractor will provide AFIP with information on all direct payments, adjustments, and the disputes within a timely manner, not to exceed 10 days from recovery of funds. The Contractor shall systematically resolve all accounts transferred in accordance with the terms and conditions of the Contract.The Contractor shall ensure that all attempts to collect on accounts transferred do not involve harassment, intimidation, false, or misleading repr esentation. There shall be no unnecessary communications concerning such debt to persons other than the borrower or the borrower's designated representative. All requests for information from third parties shall be referred to AFIP upon receipt.REQUIRED AC TIVITIES, DOCUMENTATION AND STANDARDSListed below are the required collection activities to be performed by the Contractor, the required documentation to be obtained by the Contractor, and AFIP standards to be followed by the Contractor.A. REPAYMENT OF AC COUNTSThe Contractor will attempt to obtain payment in full or settlement. Whenever the Contractor determines that repayment in full is not immediately possible, the Contractor shall negotiate a mutually agreed upon reasonable and affordable repayment sch edule employing AFIPs philosophy relative to repayment recovery of accounts. Generally, repayment schedules should affect resolution of the account within one year or 12 months from the first payment date. B. LITIGATION Contractor will not in itiate any form of legal action without prior written authority from AFIP. Should legal action be indicated, Contractor will execute a written assignment of the account for such action. All accounts authorized by the AFIP for legal action will be charged at a rate to be proposed by the Contractor. Upon preparation of the account for litigation, the Contractor shall immediately submit the case file to AFIP for approval. AFIP will review each case for accuracy and compl iance within thirty (30) days of receipt. If the Contractor fails to meet any litigation preparation requirements, the case will be returned to the Contractor for correction or completion of the requirements. Any information contained in the package, which becomes outdated due to non-compliance by the Contractor shall be updated by the Contractor. The Contractor will receive their proposed fixed fee for each case reviewed,CONTRACTOR DELIVERABLESThe Contractor's schedule of deliverables is shown below. The C ontractor shall forward one (1) copy of the deliverables (marked with an asterisk *) to the Contracting Officer (CO) and one (1) copy to the Contracting Officers Representative (COR) and shall notify all representatives, as listed above, of the accomplish ment of all deliverables. Performance Objective Performance standard/AQL Maintain an electronic databaseProvide timely notification on items requiring government actions Deliver required reports Locate and contact a minimum of 95% of borrowers to demand payment of their debts to the Federal Government, or othe rwise resolve their debt. The account database may not contain more than 5 % of incorrect, inaccessible or inappropriate lines of informationNotify the government within 15 days of incidentNo more than zero of the reports to the appropriate government cont act may be later than the specified time period w/o prior coordinationObtain full payment or settlement on a 12 month payment schedule PERIODIC CONTRACTOR DELIVERABLESThe Contractor shall prepare and furnish one copy to the Contracting Officer, COR, Assistant COR and the monitor, on at least a monthly basis and due by the fifteenth (15th) day of the following month, the following delivera bles:-- Performance Assessment Report;-- Management and Fiscal Reports;--Collections ReportPerformance Assessment ReportThe Performance Assessment Report should include the following:Categories shou ld include:?Monitoring of collector/customer service calls?Correspondence for proper handling/response?Delinquent accounts?Litigation?Accounts compromised?Account balances on Contractors computer system vs. AFIP-System?Administrative Resolutions?All Elect ronic File Transfer information prior to mailing/transmission (Account Updates (name, address, phone numbers, employment), Letter History Updates, Billing, Account Return, etc.) Management and Fiscal ReportsThe Contractor shall produce, on at least an end of the month schedule, due by the fifteenth (15th) day of the following month, management and fiscal reports designed to monitor Task Order performance. At a minimum, these reports shall contain any problems which have been, or shall be resolved; discuss the work (including manpower requirements, administrative resolution, litigation, collections, etc.) performed over the month just completed; and report on projected activity for the upcoming month(s).The Contractor shall include in the reports, the number of complaints received, the volume of incoming correspondence from the borrowers or their representatives, number of new borrower contacts, and other information that may be requested. These reports shall be considered a part of the Contractor's measuring system for its performance assessment plan.On a monthly basis, the Contractor shall furnish the AFIP Contracting Officer with a report that includes, but is not limited to, the following items:-- Information on dollars collected (Current month and year to date). -- Information on any problems incurred by the Contractor during the month; and resolution on problem still outstanding.n Other information that needs to be brought to the attention of the Contracting Officer, late EFTs, information regarding outst anding issues awaiting an AFIP response, etc. Collections ReportContractor will provide detailed report statements which will illustrate collections including the following information:n Agency namen Amount collected n Amount due to AFIPn Amount withheld as feen Balance of accountn Other Pertinent Collections Information/Activity-- The Contractor shall provide adhoc reports as requested by AFIP.PAYMENTS The Contractors payment for services rendered should come exclusively from the funds that have be en successfully recovered from the contributor. The Contractor will bid a percentage of overall collection successfully recovered.All recovered dollars by the Contractor on the AFIP account will be deposited immediately into a trust account maintained for disbursement. All money collected by the contractor will be remitted to AFIP via a check less the Contractors collection fee, by the first Friday following the 15th of the month following collection of funds. Contractor will provide detailed report sta tements which will illustrate collections including contributors name, amount collected amount due to AFIP, balance of account, etc. (See Section Deliverables of this Work Statement) Line Items (CLINS): Base Year 0001 All costs anticipated for that period and other direct costs; Option I 0002 All costs anticipated for that period and other direct costs; Option II 0003 All costs anticipated for that period and other direct costs; Op tion III 0004 All costs anticipated for that period and other direct costs and Option IV 0005 all costs anticipated for that period and other direct costs. Offerors must accept Government Credit for payment. This is not a set-aside for small businesses. The Government will award a contract resulting from this solicitation to the responsible offeror whose offer conforming to the solicitation will be most advantageous, representing the best value to the Government price and other factors considered. The f ollowing factors will be used to evaluate offers: (1) Past Experience of similar work; (2) Qualifications/Experience of key Personnel; (3) technical capabilities; vendor must demonstrate a proven track record of recruiting and r etaining personnel in the same or substanitially similar discipline required under this SOW; (4) Past Performance of similar work. Each offeror must (1) submit an offer, (2) submit a technical proposal that addresses the evaluation criteria . To evaluat ion criteria #4 vendor must identify all federal, state local or private contracts for which the offeror has performed work similar to the SOW in this solicitation. Include contracts within the last two years, including POCs and telephone numbers. This l ist is due on the established receipt date of proposals. Offerors are reminded to include a completed copy of the provision at 52.212-3 Offeror Representation and Certification-Commercial Items. The following Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) clauses are hereby incorporated by reference into this solicitation: FAR 52.212-1, instructions to Offerors-Commercial Items (OCT 1995), FAR 52-212-2 Evaluation-Commercial Items, FAR 52.212-4 Contract Terms and Conditions-Commercial Items; FAR 52.212-5 Contract Te rms and Conditions Required to Implement Statues or Executive Orders Commercial Items. Addition clauses that apply: 52.217-9 Option to Extend the Term of Contract and 52.219-8 Utilization of Small Business Concerns. Quotes are due on 03 February 2006 at 3 :00 PM EST to USAMRAA, 820 Chandler Street, Fort Detrick, 21702-5014. Electronic submission submission is preferred to POC: Steve Rice Stephen.Rice@amedd.army.mil.
- Place of Performance
- Address: US Army Medical Research Acquisition Activity ATTN: MCMR-AAA, 820 Chandler Street Frederick MD
- Zip Code: 21702-5014
- Country: US
- Zip Code: 21702-5014
- Record
- SN00969164-W 20060121/060119212621 (fbodaily.com)
- Source
-
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