SOLICITATION NOTICE
B -- Intent to Award Sole Source - Advisory and Assistance Services for CFTC's Division of Market Oversight
- Notice Date
- 11/1/2012
- Notice Type
- Presolicitation
- NAICS
- 541690
— Other Scientific and Technical Consulting Services
- Contracting Office
- Commodity Futures Trading Commission, Office of Financial Management-Procurement, Procurement Operations and Policy, Three Lafayette Centre, 1155 21st Street, N.W., Washington, District of Columbia, 20581
- ZIP Code
- 20581
- Solicitation Number
- CFDMO-13-SO-0068
- Archive Date
- 12/1/2012
- Point of Contact
- William M Roberson, Phone: 202-418-5367
- E-Mail Address
-
wroberson@cftc.gov
(wroberson@cftc.gov)
- Small Business Set-Aside
- N/A
- Description
- The Commodity Futures Trading Commission ('CFTC' or 'Commission') intends to procure the services of Harvey Theberge, on a sole source basis, for a two year contract for advisory and assistance services in connection with the ongoing expansion of the Commission's Division of Market Oversight's (DMO) market continuity examinations program, required by the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (Dodd-Frank Act). Automated systems play a central and critical role in the modern, predominantly electronic, futures trading environment. They will also play a critical role in the swaps market which the Commission has been charged to regulate by the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act. Effective oversight of system safeguards therefore is central to the mission of the Commission. The Dodd-Frank Act establishes substantial new system safeguards requirements for all swap execution facilities (SEFs) and swap data repositories (SDRs). Each SEF and SDR will be required to maintain a program of risk analysis and oversight that addresses information security, business continuity-disaster recovery (BC-DR) planning and resources, capacity and performance planning, systems operations, systems development and quality assurance, and physical security and environmental controls. Each SEF and SDR must have automated systems that are reliable, secure, and have adequate scalable capacity. Each SEF and SDR must also maintain emergency procedures, backup facilities, and a plan for disaster recovery that allow for the timely recovery and resumption of operations, and periodically conduct tests to verify that backup resources are sufficient to ensure continued fulfillment of the entity's obligations under the Commodity Exchange Act (CEA) and Commission regulations. The Dodd-Frank Act also established expanded, updated, and detailed system safeguards requirements for all designated contract markets (DCMs). Like SEFs and SDRs, each DCM must maintain a program of risk analysis and oversight that addresses information security, business continuity-disaster recovery (BC-DR) planning and resources, capacity and performance planning, systems operations, systems development and quality assurance, and physical security and environmental controls. Each DCM must have automated systems that are reliable, secure, and have adequate scalable capacity. Each DCM must also maintain emergency procedures, backup facilities, and a plan for disaster recovery that allow for the timely recovery and resumption of operations, and periodically conduct tests to verify that backup resources are sufficient to ensure continued fulfillment of the entity's obligations under the CEA and Commission regulations. CFTC requires contractor support for the extension and adaptation of the examinations program related to market continuity and system safeguards pursuant to the Dodd-Frank Act, as well as ongoing technical support of the DMO Examinations Group program related to market continuity and system safeguards for DCMs, SEFs and SDRs. For at least the next two years, and until the number of DMO's systems risk analysts can be substantially increased, this required work cannot be performed without the assistance of a highly qualified contractor who has substantial experience with DMO's system safeguards examinations process and DMO's designation and registration review processes. The contractor is considered to be uniquely qualified to perform the required work. His extensive experience places him in a unique position to provide services needed by the Commission in connection with its expanding responsibilities for oversight of both futures and swaps, and in connection with the need for increased oversight of high frequency trading. During the past three and one-half years, Mr. Theberge has played a principal role as a contractor in developing the Commission's market continuity program in the DMO's Examinations Group, which is designed to conduct regular examinations of compliance with system safeguards core principles and regulations for the automated systems of not only DCMs and DCOs, but also the SEFs and SDRs created pursuant to the Dodd-Frank Act. He has extensive and unique experience in conducting system safeguards examinations, and with conducting reviews of applicants for designation as DCMs and registration as SDRs or SEFs. In addition, Mr. Theberge played a central role in assisting the Commission in developing possible requirements for exchanges that offer co-location and/or proximity hosting services, particularly in the area of latency transparency, and has devoted a significant amount of time and effort in building expertise in this area through research and discussion with major industry participants and providers. His knowledge in this area will be particularly valuable as the Commission moves forward with its efforts to understand and provide enhanced oversight of high frequency trading at DCMs and SEFs. Additionally, the contractor developed the Commission's existing program for conducting technical reviews of applicants for designation as an exchange. He was also the sole provider of reviews of the systems planned by new applicants for designation, and has regularly acted as a consultant to CFTC attorneys on technical matters in rule enforcement reviews for the past 12 years. Due to the unique qualifications of Harvey Theberge, and the results of past related notices posted in FedBizOpps, CFTC believes that no other qualified source exists for this work. This notice does not constitute a solicitation for offers and, as such, no solicitation is available. However, the Government will consider responses from all responsible sources received by the response date and time identified in this notice. Written responses must include sufficient information to establish capability to fulfill the requirement. Any responses received will only be considered for the purpose of determining whether to conduct a competitive procurement in lieu of the sole source contract described in this notice, and such determination shall be made at the sole discretion of CFTC.
- Web Link
-
FBO.gov Permalink
(https://www.fbo.gov/spg/CFTC/OFMP/POP/CFDMO-13-SO-0068/listing.html)
- Place of Performance
- Address: Three Lafayette Centre, 1155 21st Street, NW, Washington, District of Columbia, 20581, United States
- Zip Code: 20581
- Zip Code: 20581
- Record
- SN02922627-W 20121103/121101234215-e070d953a9a12edf681bdc0644b5c572 (fbodaily.com)
- Source
-
FedBizOpps Link to This Notice
(may not be valid after Archive Date)
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