SOLICITATION NOTICE
R -- Accounts Payable/Obligations Support
- Notice Date
- 3/12/2014
- Notice Type
- Presolicitation
- NAICS
- 541219
— Other Accounting Services
- Contracting Office
- Department of Health and Human Services, Program Support Center, Division of Acquisition Management, 12501 Ardennes Avenue, Suite 400, Rockville, Maryland, 20857, United States
- ZIP Code
- 20857
- Solicitation Number
- 14-233-SOL-00141
- Archive Date
- 6/6/2014
- Point of Contact
- Nathaniel Mizzell, Phone: (301) 443-4379
- E-Mail Address
-
nathaniel.mizzell@psc.hhs.gov
(nathaniel.mizzell@psc.hhs.gov)
- Small Business Set-Aside
- Competitive 8(a)
- Description
- The Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS), Program Support Center (PSC) on behalf of Financial Management Services (FMS), Division of Financial Operations (DFO), intends to solicit offers from 8(a) Contractors to provide professional administrative, clerical, analytical, and financial/accounting support services. The contract will be for a base period of 6-months with four 1-year option periods. The North American Industrial Classification System (NAICS) code for this effort is 541219. The RFP will be issued approximately on March 21, 2014 with an anticipated award date of June 6, 2014. The RFP will be made available electronically at this address: http://www.fedbizops.gov. All questions are to be submitted in writing to the point of contact information provided in the notice. Phone calls will not be accepted. The solicitation will be set-aside for 8(a) Contractor's only. A. General Information The Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS), Program Support Center (PSC), Financial Management Service (FMS), Division of Financial Operations (DFO) seeks to acquire administrative, clerical, analytical, financial/accounting support for the Commercial Payments Section, IPAC Payments Section, Travel Payments Section, Disbursement Services Section, and Funds Control-Grants Obligations Section for one 6-month base period, plus four 1-year option periods. This contract will serve as a vehicle to provide customer service and support to our accounting operations as well as numerous DFO customers and activities. B. Background The US Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS)/Office of the Assistant Secretary of Administration (ASA)/Program Support Center (PSC)/ Financial Management Service (FMS)/ Division of Financial Operations (DFO) provide full accounting and fiscal services for a variety of HHS customers and other agencies. These services include a complete range of debt management, disbursement, fund accounting and financial reporting services. There is a payment management system which supports cash management and scheduled grant and contract payments; review, negotiation and approval of rates for indirect costs, research, patient care, and other special rates for organizations receiving Federally sponsored awards; and review and approval of state and local cost allocation plans. The accounts payable (AP), funds control and grant obligation functions are performed in the Division of Financial Operations (DFO). DFO performs AP activities and obligation related services within the Unified Financial Management System (UFMS). These activities include intra-governmental payment and collection (IPAC), payments to individuals and commercial vendors for travel, credit card purchases, contracts, utilities, loans, scholarships, loan repayment programs, and their corresponding tax reporting and filings (W-2s and 1099-Miscellaneous forms), Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) settlements and benefit claims, and other related cash management controls. These transactions are processed through manual and electronic means by matching invoice and receiving documents. Obligation services are also provided for grants and letter of credit contracts and for funds control. Services are provided in a proactive and responsive manner, and in compliance with sound accounting theory, concepts and practices, regulations and legal requirements (i.e., Prompt Payment Act) and other departmental or federal government guidance. C. Mission The Accounts Payable activity serves a vital support function to our customers. The primary mission of Accounts Payable is to provide timely, cost effective, and accurate expenditure processing of funds, while maintaining an exceptional level of customer service for all facets of the payment process. The disbursement processing cycle in Accounts Payable begins with the receipt of a vendor invoice and/or other formal documents requesting payment for goods or services. The cycle ends with the transfer of funds. All processing procedures in Accounts Payable are consistent with governmental guidelines. DFO strives to accurately record obligations for contracts, purchase orders, grants (including pre-obligation commitments/fund reservations), and other miscellaneous obligations in to the UFMS accounting system. Government and DFO guidelines are followed to ensure that timely payments can be processed to meet customer needs. D. Purpose The Statement of Work covers activities and deliverables associated with accounts payable and accounting tasks related to commercial payments, intra-governmental IPAC's, travel payments and grants/funds control obligations. All work will be performed with the expectation of meeting prescribed Federal Government standards under the Prompt Payment Act, the Chief Financial Officers (CFO) Act, the Debt Collection Improvement Act of 1996, the Improper Payment Act, Appropriations Law, guidelines established by the Department of the Treasury for intra-governmental transactions and any other pertinent oversight laws, regulations, and Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) while supporting the maintenance of a clean financial statement audit opinion and general operational performance. E. General Tasks The contactor shall perform the following tasks: General/Administrative Requirements: Protection of sensitive information is inherent to all positions under this contract and all contractor personnel shall operate under the same Standards of Conduct and Ethics requirements as Federal personnel. Contractor personnel will be provided official time to complete all mandatory training, such as privacy awareness and information system security awareness. The Contractor shall participate in Continuity of Operations Plan (COOP) exercises and attend PSC/DFO meetings as required. Extensive customer contact will be required. The Contractor shall communicate effectively both orally and in writing. The Contractor shall engage in problem solving, error handling, providing advice to customers and explaining various financial procedures to program personnel. Customer support for inquiries through general phone lines and electronic mailboxes will be required. The Contractor shall provide reports, documents or copies of invoices related to disbursements to program, budget, and acquisition offices upon request or in response to Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) or other ad hoc requests. The Contractor shall have knowledge of software applications such as Microsoft Outlook, EXCEL, WORD, ACCESS, and Power Point as these applications are commonly used in DFO. The Contractor shall be responsible for records management within National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) guidelines and for protecting sensitive information associated with all government documents/activities. The Contractor shall import invoices for commercial payments from the "electronic mailbox" and index them directly into the Invoice Scanning & Imaging System (ISIS) commonly referred to by its proprietary name, E-Flow. The Contractor shall also scan and index paper invoices. The quantity of invoices that shall be processed is approximately 52,000 invoices annually. Additional scanning and indexing of invoices/documents (including, but not limited to PSC-59 documents) into an automated process management system shall be required for other activities related to this SOW; however, this effort is not material. Documents can be electronically uploaded into eFlow or they must be manually scanned and indexed. The Contractor shall sort and distribute mail to appropriate staff on a daily basis. The time required for sorting and distributing mail is approximately 30 minutes per day. The Contractor shall print and mail IRS Forms 1099-Miscellaneous and W-2 forms for reportable payments made to vendors and other payment recipients as required by applicable regulations and guidance. The Contractor shall request Help desk "tickets" for systems issues through a federal supervisor and the Contractor shall ensure that all help desk tickets that are submitted are resolved. Standard operating procedures for working remotely shall be established by the Contractor and approved by the COR. The Contractor will inform federal managers on all decisions regarding recruitment and termination of staff assigned to the contract. However, the Contractor shall make all final determinations in relation to staffing under the contract. The Contractor shall manage and oversee all activities performed by its personnel, including subcontractors and consultants, to satisfy the requirements in this Statement of Work (SOW). Audit Support/Administrative and Accounting Controls: Audit samples shall be provided to the federal managers/auditors, upon request. The Contractor shall perform the tasks in the SOW in accordance with existing Standard Operating Procedures and A-123 requirements. Audit Support: • The Contractor shall retrieve available documentation for audit samples and answer follow-up questions from auditors on internal/external audit samples and supporting details shall be compiled and submitted to the federal manager/auditor, as required.* • The Contractor technician shall perform post payment audit of travel vouchers. After a travel voucher is paid in the accounting system, vouchers are randomly audited to ensure the traveler accurately claimed expenses for reimbursement. Collection action or a letter will be required if there was an overpayment, receipts are missing or illegible, or if items were claimed erroneously. Results are recorded in a "findings report." Number of post payment audits required annually: 600 Administrative and Accounting Controls: • The Contractor shall perform the tasks within this Statement of Work in accordance with existing A-123 internal accounting and administrative controls and shall provide data/responses on A-123 reviews upon request and on a timely basis. • The Contractor shall develop and execute corrective action plans for audit or review findings and establish milestones for tracking new processes. • The Contractor shall interpret/translate regulations, mandates, and policy statements and make recommendations for implementing processes and controls to ensure compliance. The Contractor shall monitor such controls/processes and make recommendations, as needed, to the federal manager(s) to improve internal controls and DFO operations. Written Procedures, Training and Training Materials: Requirement for obligations related activities will be effective on 12/11/2014. • The Contractor shall develop high quality standard operating procedures (SOPs) for all AP tasks, including tax processing, and existing SOP's shall be updated quarterly, or as needed to reflect the most current acceptable practices as determined by the appropriate DFO federal manager and/or the COR. The Contractor shall test and validate SOP's and obtain approval from the federal manager in that section and/or the COR. • The Contractor shall provide support to DFO, as required, for training other PSC staff and/or customer agencies on processes and systems. The Contractor shall also be required to lead these training efforts, if requested. • Training guides/materials shall be developed by the Contractor to provide training to federal and/or other Contractor staff and PSC customers on Accounts Payable (AP) or obligations issues. This training and developed material will be associated with Contractor tasks in the SOW and the Contractor shall ensure that material is 508 compliant, if required. Payment Processing: Contractor technicians shall process commercial travel and IPAC payments. The Contractor shall promptly address any issues causing schedule failures or delays. Commercial Payments: The Contractor technician shall process payments to non-governmental entities/individuals for contracts, purchase cards, special programs, confidential funds, vaccine injury compensation, EEOC settlements, and benefit claims. The Contractor shall perform data reconciliation for these payments. The Contractor technician shall match approximately 52,000 vendor invoices against 71,000 purchase order lines and/or receipt information. The Contractor technician shall assist with resolving Payable interface errors to allow for further processing. The Contractor shall post transactions related to manual disbursements made outside of the accounting system in a timely manner in accordance with prescribed guidance. IPAC Payments: The Contractor technician shall obtain direct obligation numbers from intra-governmental obligations that are created by customers in the iProcurement system in order to pay/clear IPAC transactions from the "pre-validation forms" (which are uploaded into UFMS from the Department of Treasury IPAC system) and process payments. The Contractor technician shall post UFMS disbursements of bills that routinely include costs for multiple OPDIV or StaffDiv charges. Rent/security billings, Telecommunications Ordering & Pricing System (TOPS)/Federal Technology Service (FTS) communications bills and Office of Personnel Management (OPM) investigation bills require a high level of effort because of the large dollar amount and volume of account numbers associated with each bill and extensive detailed tracking of what is paid vs. unpaid, per OPDIV per month. The approximate number of annual IPAC bills that shall be processed by the Contractor are: Rent/Security 1,500 TOPS/FTS & OPM 3,000 All Other Types 10,000 The Contractor technician shall record manual AP invoices (non-IPAC/governmental AP transactions) in UFMS prior to payment. The Contractor technician shall ensure sufficient funding is provided by the OPDIV's to ensure full payments can be made and/or posted in UFMS. The Contractor shall contact the appropriate budget office when funding is insufficient. Accounting Requirements/Reconciliations: The Contractor shall apply General accounting requirements to all activities unless otherwise addressed within this Statement of Work. General Accounting Requirements:  The Contractor will be working with Oracle Federal Financials and shall record accounting transactions into the UFMS AP module and the General Ledger. Invoices and other AP or obligating documents shall be captured and moved through the payment process using ISIS.  The Contractor shall derive proper proprietary and budgetary values. The Contractor shall identify and correct abnormal accounting transactions that may have an adverse impact on financial statements.  The Contractor shall analyze interest expenses, statistics, and metrics to determine if performance meets expectations.  The Contractor shall reconcile payments in AP and the General Ledger (GL).  The Contractor shall follow standard protocols for posting disbursements and resolve out-of-balance schedules (OOB) on a timely basis under the Fund Balance with Treasury initiative within DFO. The Contractor shall prepare a month-end OOB Schedules report for payments.  The Contractor technician shall process accounting reclassifications (G schedules) when it is determined that funds were obligated or disbursements were made from an incorrect common accounting number (CAN). G schedules are assigned by "tickets" and one or more reclassifications can be associated with each ticket. The Contractor shall process approximately 750 G schedules annually, including those associated with the Managing/Accounting Credit Card System (MACCS). IPAC chargebacks/reconciliations:  The Contractor technician shall process chargebacks for erroneous IPAC bills in the Department of Treasury IPAC system. The Contractor shall record corresponding entries in UFMS.  At the request of the government, the Contractor shall reconcile IPAC payments to obligation.  The Contractor shall provide tax related reconciliations as required and requested by the government. Travel reconciliations:  The Contractor analyst shall provide support for reviewing, uploading, and reconciling the monthly centrally billed account (CBA) file for airfare, airfare fees, travel authorization and voucher fees (TAV). This involves analyzing data and correcting errors. Manual posting will be required in UFMS to correct interface errors. The CBA/TAV charges shall be reconciled to the monthly bill in EXCEL. The contractor technician shall post (manually) approximately 1,300 TAV transactions and approximately 1,500 CBA transactions annually. Grants reconciliations:  The Contractor analyst shall reconcile the Payment Management System (PMS) File Statistics Report 084 for expenditures (by appropriation) to the PMS 98D report twice monthly.  The Contractor analyst shall reconcile the PMS File Statistics Report 062 for charges/advances (by appropriation) to the Payment Management Summary Reconciliation Report (SRR) once monthly.  The Contractor analyst shall perform monthly American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) reconciliations.  The Contractor analyst shall perform monthly sync report of obligations in UFMS reconciled to PMS.  The Contractor shall be required to perform reconciliations on additional grant programs if additional monitoring and oversight is required. Therefore, reconciliations may be required for grant programs that do not currently exist or where it is determined by federal management that oversight/scrutiny or metrics are needed. Tax: The Contractor analyst shall perform quarterly and annual payroll tax filing and reporting that will require the expertise of an accounts payable analyst (with a minimum of 1 years of tax experience in the requirements specific to this SOW). The Contractor shall determine applicable and proper forms to be filed to ensure compliance with tax laws and reporting guidelines related to commercial and travel payments (including but not limited to IRS Forms 1099-Miscellaneous, 1042 and W-2 forms). The Contractor may be required to identify/develop processes and best practices for reporting requirements that do not currently exist or where it is determined by federal management that it is needed. The Contractor shall perform data reconciliations and reviews prior to printing and mailing all forms in accordance with applicable timelines and requirements set forth by various reporting agencies (i.e. The Internal Revenue Service and Social Security Administration) to minimize audit issues. The Contractor shall respond to tax agency correspondence and notices in the timeframe prescribed by the federal manager or COR. Journal entries related to payroll taxes shall be prepared and posted by the Contractor, as needed. The Contractor shall be responsible for completing approximately 7,000 IRS 1099-Miscellaneous and W-2 forms to recipients Obligations Processing (Effective 12/11/2014): The Contractor shall record funds control and grant obligations timely and accurately. Funds Control Obligations Processing: The Contractor technician shall verify and record unsynchronized documents in UFMS. Types of unsynchronized documents include contract amendments/modifications, delivery orders, task orders, and purchase orders. The Contractor shall query UFMS a minimum of 4 times each business day to search for and act on pending items. Based on an analysis of each scenario, the Contractor shall determine if the auto-create functionality should be applied. Manual intervention/processing shall be required by the Contractor technician, especially when obligations are not in PRISM and for some business processes that do not require the use of iProcurement. Some miscellaneous iProcurement direct obligation entry and/or receiving processing may be required by the Contractor. The Contractor technician shall be responsible for recording approximately 65,000 PSC 59's and other manually recorded obligations for all funds control related activities on an annual basis. There are approximately 230,000 transaction lines associated with these obligations. The Contractor technician shall resolve unsynchronized document errors (such as, but not limited to, purchase orders and contracts), and errors with direct obligations on a weekly basis. True funds failures shall be segregated from all other error types and be reported to the DFO Reports and Control Branch, as directed. The Contractor shall resolve non funds failure errors as soon as possible but no later than 2 business days from receipt. (a) Weekly Purchase Order (PO) Clean-Up: The Reports and Control Branch (RCB) sends a PO Errors Report to the Contactor every week, usually on Monday. The Contractor shall review the PO's that have funds failures and/or other issues and try to approve them. The Contractor shall submit an "actions needed" list inclusive of PO's which cannot be completed to the RCB within 2 business days of receivng the PO Error Report. The goal is to routinely focus attention on issues and to minimize them. (b) Monthly Direct Obligation Review: The Contractor technician shall perform a direct obligation review/analysis for potentially unauthorized procurements on a monthly basis. Direct obligations are reviewed to ensure that they are assigned to the appropriate categories and suppliers. Potential unauthorized procurements shall be identified and addressed. Phone and/or email contact with DFO personnel and program officials will be required. Summary totals for direct obligation errors shall be reported to DFO Systems Accounting Branch on a monthly basis. (c) Quarterly Review of Open Documents: HHS requires that all operating divisions review their open documents on a quarterly basis. The Contractor technician shall perform two tasks, one at the beginning of the review and one at the end of the process. The Contractor technician shall first perform a data cleanup/report preparation of the financial system open document file for distribution to HHS OPDIVs. This involves merging transactions that offset/cancel out each other. The customer will receive this data, for review, from the federal lead. The federal lead will wait for further direction from the customer and will provide the requirements to the contractor. The Contractor technician shall then update the accounting system based on the action requested by the customer. 3.6.6.2 Grants and Letter of Credit (LOC) Obligations Processing The Contractor analyst shall ensure that Grants and Letter of Credit (LOC) contract transactions are recorded as soon as possible but no later than 2 business days from receipt in UFMS and the Payment Management System (PMS). Manual obligations and de-obligations shall also be required as necessary. Grant documents and LOC documents shall be reconciled by the Contractor in the accounting system and in the Payment Management System (PMS). The Contractor analyst shall work with and assist the Division of Payment Management (DPM), GATES, ERA, and Grants Solutions technical and applications support teams, as well as OPDIV customers in resolving error conditions, closeout and cancellation issues. The Contractor analyst shall resolve approximately 9,000 UFMS grant obligation errors and approximately 3,000 PMS errors annually. Requisitions created with a LOC flag checked in iProcurement which appear on the Open Requisitions Report shall be obligated in the UFMS Grants Module by the Contractor. Hence, the Contractor analyst shall obtain a copy of the contract document from the customer. Once the obligation is recorded, the Contractor shall notify SAB so that they can cancel the funds that are committed. The Contractor analyst shall assist RCB with correcting funds check failures (error 12) so that obligations can post in the accounting system. The Contractor analyst shall follow-up with customers at least twice per week on any unresolved errors. Troubleshooting/Tracking Issues: The Contractor shall review and resolve some complex, non-routine, AP related system problems and customer service issues while escalating any major issues to federal management. 1. The Contractor technician shall track, research and resolve any AP payments that cannot be processed or are on hold. These issues shall be revisited, updated and reported on a weekly basis. The Contractor shall consolidate all AP holds and report issues on a weekly basis. The AP holds report, which is a consolidation of all holds issues, shall be distributed, by the Contractor, to other DFO and contractor staff and customers for action on the first business day of the week. 2. The Contractor analyst shall research and resolve travel advance issues on a weekly basis. Govtrip, UFMS, and/or ETS2 research may be required. Some vouchers will be in a "DUE US" status and may require debt collection action, initiated by the Contractor. Follow-ups, (debt) letters and tracking shall be required of the Contractor. Advances may need to be manually liquidated by the Contractor. The Contractor shall resolve approximately 150 travel advance issues annually. The Contractor shall email the status of travel advances to the travel section chief on a weekly basis. 3. The Contractor technician shall track the status of IPAC payables. The Contractor shall track how much each customer owes for each bill by the month. The status of any issue must be able to be identified and reported to a customer upon request. The Contractor shall report AP IPAC tracking to the Federal manager on a monthly basis. 4. The Contractor technician shall track funds control manual obligations and unsynchronized acquisitions on a weekly report, effective 12/11/2014, to include: • Direct obligations that come through the 14 funds control mailboxes • Funds control obligations-related "tickets" • Unsynchronized contracts that upload into the PRISM "unsync log" where the auto-create function is used to obligate requisitions • Deobligations which are completed manually • Direct obligations and/or unsynchronized contracts that cannot be processed the same day it was received. 5. Beginning 12/11/2014, each month the Contractor shall provide a grants status report indicating the status of open and resolved grants issues in UFMS and PMS such as UFMS errors, PMS errors, and closeouts. 6. The Contractor shall track all invoice E-mails on an Excel spreadsheet and counts must be verified in E-Flow daily. All scanned invoices are verified in ISIS with reports to ensure proper internal controls. Automation/Reports: The Contractor analyst shall participate in efforts to automate and enhance accounts payable (AP) and obligations processes, including the tax transactions and associated reconciliations, to reduce operational costs. The Contractor shall analyze data to validate/ensure operational efficiency, upon request. The Contractor analyst shall create ad-hoc reports and enhance existing reports that are used by PSC and its customers. The Contractor analyst shall perform User Acceptance Testing (UAT) to validate AP, HCAS and other related systems upgrades and modifications; as well as assist with data synchronization efforts. The Contractor analyst shall be a Federal Business Intelligence System (FBIS) user. This tool uses Consolidated Financial Reporting System financial data as well as direct UFMS financial data for developing reports, queries and dashboards. Any assigned contractor staff will be provided provisioning and training in FBIS before using its reporting and other capabilities. Monthly and Ad-hoc Reports/Analysis: The Contractor analyst shall perform analysis and prepare the following reports or other ad-hoc reports no later than the 5th business day of every month or as required: 1. PSC Quality and Timeliness Reports 2. Payment Analysis 3. Interest Analysis Reports for commercial vendors
- Web Link
-
FBO.gov Permalink
(https://www.fbo.gov/spg/HHS/PSC/DAM/14-233-SOL-00141/listing.html)
- Place of Performance
- Address: The anticipated place of performance is anticipated to be as follows:, Department of Health and Human Services, 12501 Ardennes Avenue, Suite 200, Rockville, Maryland, 20857, United States
- Zip Code: 20857
- Zip Code: 20857
- Record
- SN03308903-W 20140314/140312235054-05b9a3a82c707d936523e4506f712613 (fbodaily.com)
- Source
-
FedBizOpps Link to This Notice
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