SOLICITATION NOTICE
D -- Business Opportunities
- Notice Date
- 2/8/2008
- Notice Type
- Solicitation Notice
- NAICS
- 541511
— Custom Computer Programming Services
- Contracting Office
- Social Security Administration, Office of Budget, Finance, and Management, Office of Acquisition and Grants, 1st Floor, Rear Entrance 7111 Security Blvd., Baltimore, MD, 21244, UNITED STATES
- ZIP Code
- 00000
- Solicitation Number
- SSA-08-0001
- Response Due
- 2/22/2008
- Archive Date
- 3/8/2008
- Point of Contact
- Valerie Jones, Contract Specialist, Phone 410-594-2016, Fax 410-965-9560
- E-Mail Address
-
valerie.jones@ssa.gov
- Description
- The Social Security Administration intends to negotiate on a sole source basis with Accuity, 4709 Golf Road, Suite 600, Skokie, Illinois 60076 under the authority of Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) 6.302-1, Only One Responsible Source and No Other Supplies or Services will Satisfy Agency Requirements to purchase hardware maintenance and support services as outlined below. This is a continuation of services for the Access to Financial Institution (AFI) Project. The Foster Care Independence Act gives SSA the right to require Supplemental Security Income (SSI) applicants, recipients and deemors to give authorization to financial institutions (FI) to provide verification of an SSI applicant's, recipient's or deemor's financial assets. SSA's current process for obtaining asset verification is paper-based. The form SSA-4641-U2, Authorization for the Social Security Administration to Obtain Account Records From A Financial Institution and Request for Records, is mailed to the FI and asks the FI to provide the balance held in a financial account at specified dates. The purpose of the AFI is to convert to electronic media the information exchanges (e.g., form SSA-4641-U2) that now occurs in paper form between FIs and SSA; obtain titling, balance and related information on all types of accounts or certificates held by the SSI applicant, recipient or deemor in addition to verifying the account balance and interest income revealed by the applicant, recipient or deemor; detect unreported accounts in financial institutions located in proximity to the home address of the SSI applicant, recipient or deemor and to automate the process whereby FIs are reimbursed for the cost of account verification. SSA is seeking continued contractor support to maintain the front-end and back-end operation of the SSI Asset Verification Program, including the GUARD Application, which SSA and Accuity have worked on for the past four years. Accuity serves as the official registrar of the Routing Number System for the American Bankers Association (ABA); they are purportedly the single source for assigning and retiring routing numbers for every institution that meets the criteria established by the ABA; it is believed that every financial institution in the US must utilize them to assign, to retire, or to change a routing number. In their capacity as Official Registrar of the Routing Number System for the ABA, Accuity collects, processes, and maintains a database of current information on financial institutions worldwide. SSA previously awarded successive orders, of one year each, to Accuity, for the Proof of Concept (POC) for these services. During the POC phase, Accuity successfully demonstrated a process for verifications and reimbursement requests from a number of test offices in selected states. This phase of the POC demonstrated that the system design and its operation would substantially improve the SSA-4641-U2 process. The next phase of the POC involved an expansion of Accuity automated asset verification process including the use of Accuity's Geographical Undisclosed Account Radial Detection (GUARD) function to detect undisclosed financial accounts to all 110 Field Offices (FO) in the states of New York and New Jersey and to a limited number of users in the Office of Quality Performance (OQP) 15 regional sites. QOP conducted an extensive evaluation of the Accuity process in New York/New Jersey FO's and the findings supported the expansion of the Accurity process to additional SSA FO's nationwide and the recruitment of additional FI?s as participants. As a result of OQP's study SSA contracted with Accuity to expand its operations to all FO's in the state of California. SSA now intends to issue a firm fixed price contract for the period April 2008 thru January 2009, for (a) continued support of the front-end and back-end operation of the SSI Asset Verification Program, including the GUARD application in the New York/New Jersey and California FO's and OQP's regional sites; (b) management information, program data and analytical support for evaluating ongoing operations and additional Program growth opportunities for current and future phases and (c) develop an isolated/dedicated facility for encrypting backups for files associated with SSI Asset Verification Program. To date, Accuity is the only company identified by SSA that has the capability for detecting unreported depository accounts at financial institutions using the customers, name and social security number as the identifying information. SSA has previously conducted extensive market research and published multiple sources sought notices to identify alternative sources of supply for these services. The research has resulted in Accuity being the only organization uniquely qualified to implement all the tasks required by SSA. Again, this is a notice of intent to negotiate on a sole source basis with Accuity for follow-on services and is not a request for competitive proposals. Any responsible firm that feels it has the capability to provide this requirement and has similar capabilities and resources as Accuity may respond in writing no later than February 22, 2008, with capability statements and information describing in full detail their capabilities to accomplish SSA?s objective. Additionally, respondents should cite specific examples of their experience in detecting unreported depository accounts at financial institutions using the customers name and social security number as the identifying information. Interested parties that feel they can provide these services shall respond by submitting their capability statement by e-mail to Valerie.Jones@ssa.gov. All responses shall be marked CAPABILITY STATEMENT-- FINANCIAL INSTITUTION VERIFICATION. The Government does not intend to pay for information provided in response to this publication. Information received will be considered solely for the purpose of determining whether or not to conduct a competitive procurement. A determination by the government not to compete this requirement based upon responses to this notice is solely within the discretion of the Government. If no responses are received by the cutoff date above, the SSA will proceed with negotiations with Accuity. Telephone calls regarding this matter will not be accepted, nor will they be returned.
- Place of Performance
- Address: Social Security Administration, East High rise Building, 6401 Security Boulevard, Baltimore, MD
- Zip Code: 21235-0001
- Country: UNITED STATES
- Zip Code: 21235-0001
- Record
- SN01504706-W 20080210/080208230705 (fbodaily.com)
- Source
-
FedBizOpps Link to This Notice
(may not be valid after Archive Date)
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