MOD | R | Foreign Currency Payment Transactions

FBO DAILY ISSUE OF NOVEMBER 23, 2003 FBO #0726
MODIFICATION

R -- Foreign Currency Payment Transactions

Notice Date: 11/21/2003
Notice Type: Modification
Contracting Office: Other Defense Agencies, Defense Finance and Accounting Service, Acquisition Services, Cleveland, 1240 East 9th Street, Room 2323, Cleveland, OH, 44199
ZIP Code: 44199
Solicitation Number: Reference-Number-DBSCO4RA016-1
Response Due: 12/1/2003
Archive Date: 12/16/2003
Point of Contact: Brenda Parks, Contracting Officer, Phone 216-522-6845, Fax 216-522-6352,
E-Mail Address: brenda.parks@dfas.mil
Description: Questions & Answers to DBSCO4RA016-1: How will the trade files be delivered? -- This will be determined with the contracting bank. Is there any encryption aroing this process? -- Possibly, depending on the method of file delivery which would need to be determined with the contracting bank. Will the trade files include settlement in structions? -- On some files it will, other, however, may not. Once the file to execute trades is received, will the bank need to stop the process for approval or confirmation? -- On some files yes and some no. How will we be advised on incoming currency that requires conversion to USD? -- This will depend on the set-up of your proposed system. Will we have a central point of contact to query any issues? -- Yes. Is there more active trading during certain times of the week/month/year? -- No. What is the preferred method to receive paperless confirmation? -- The offeror should provide their best paperless solution(s) on this. What information is required for payment notification? -- The offeror should provide their best solution on this. The more data available the better. Given that we will be receiving and uploading files and making payments, how many simultaneous multi-users requiring access are predicted? Unknown, since as stated our volum is growing; but, several at one time would not be unexpected. If there is a limit on number of users accessing system at the same time, this should be stated in the offer. What is the preferred method to receive the reports? -- Paperless. The offeror should provide their best solution(s) on this. Is there an approval process subsequent to the DFAS/CA notification of impending payments? -- Or, are the transactions considered executed and final once the contrac tbank provides the exchange rate and USD equivalent? -- Yes, in some of the transactions there is a DFAS approval process that could result in a change to the payment or even a voiding payment. This is coordinated with the bank and happens only rarely. What are Limited Depository Accounts (LDAs)? -- The international account(s) that Treasury allows DFAS to open usually with overseas banks where funds are held and disbursed from in a foreign currency. Is the exchange rate that is valid for the ?entire day,? the rate that is provided by the contract bank for each file as they are submitted, or is it a rate that is provided for all files on any one given date? -- Rate provided upfront. Approximately what percentage of the projected 18,750 transactions are USD transactions? -- None. What are the estimated dollar value of payments on any one given day, and on a weekly, monthly or yearly basis? -- Varies too widely for an accurate estimate. What is the Columbus Center?s normal duty hours? -- Normal duty hours for all DFAS is 7:30 am to 5:00 pm EST. What are DFAS Europe?s normal duty hours (EST)? -- Same as above except on Europe time which is sic (6) hours ahead of EST. Can the DFAS/CA formates be labeled with a format-specific handle to differentiate format types? -- Maybe. What is your definition of ?a file to be certified manually?? -- Loaded into FX system, then ?certified/approved/authorized? within the FX system. Are USD payments going to be a separate file, or comingled? Is DFAS/CA interested in file transmission, manual input or both. If both, what is the estimated percentage breakdown? USD Payments, if any, would most likely be separated. What are CONUS and OCONUS locations? CONUS stands for Continental United States, OCONUS stans for outside Continental United States. This is a combined synopsis/solicitation for commercial items prepared in accordance with (IAW) the format in FAR Subpart 12.6, as supplemented with additional information included in this notice. This announcement constitutes the only solicitation; quotations are being requested and a written solicitation will not be issued. This is a full and open procurement for Other Accounting Services under NAICS 541219. All responsible sources may submit a quotation which shall be considered by the agency. DBSCO4RA016-1 is issued as a request for quotation IAW the attached Statement of Work (SOW). This request and incorporated provisions and clauses are those in effect through Federal Acquisition Circular 2001-16, effective October 31, 2003. Request is for the processing of foreign currency payments for the Defense Finance & Accounting Service, Columbus Center. Please review the SOW carefully. It is anticipated that the resulting order will be a base (first) year with four (4) option years. A firm-fixed price quotation is requested for the effort detailed in the SOW. Anticipated Contract Line Item Numbers (CLINs) for each year are: 0001 Monthly Account Maintenance 12 months @ $ XX.XX 0002 Foreign Curency Transaction Fees (Approx) 18,750 each @ $ XX.XX 0003 Additional Fees, if applicable Should it is believed that additional costs are necessary, please outline them and explain the reasoning for their requirement in the quotation. Upon award, effort will be billed/paid monthly in arrears. All quotations will be evaluated according to the factors for selection outlined in the SOW. Please provide a concise summary of the details requested in Paragraph 4A of the SOW by close of business (COB) December 1, 2003. Reply can be made by mail, fax or e-mail to the Contracting Point of Contact (POC) listed. Questions concerning this purchase will be accepted through close of business (COB) EST November 14, 2003 via e-mail only. The following provisions/clauses apply; each may be found in full text at http://arnet.gov.far or http://farsite.hill.af.mil/ . FAR 52.212-1, FAR 52.212-3 and FAR 52.212-4 are applicable with no addendums. FAR 52,212-3 must be completed and included as part of the quotation and will be provided with any request for the SOW. FAR 52.212-5, along with 52.222-21, 52.222-26, 52.222-36, 52.222-37, 52.222-19, 52.225-13, and 52.232-33. FAR 52.212-2 is applicable and the evaluation factors under 52.212-2(a) are explained in paragraph 4 of the SOW. STATEMENT OF WORK FOREIGN CURRENCY TRANSACTIONS 1. BACKGROUND The Defense Finance and Accounting Service - Columbus Center (DFAS/CA) performs financial and accounting functions for several governmental agencies conducting various operations throughout the world. The Center currently has a one-year contract, which expires on December 31, 2003. The purpose of this solicitation is to open the bidding to interested parties in establishing a long-term contract for a process that allows the Defense Finance and Accounting Service - Columbus Center to continue paying foreign vendors/contractors in a variety of foreign currencies. 2. SCOPE A. Concept of Operations: 1. Disbursements - The Defense Finance and Accounting Service - Columbus Center will establish an account(s) with the contract bank. When processing foreign currency payment(s) to foreign vendors/contractors, the Defense Finance and Accounting Service - Columbus Center shall notify the contract bank of the impending payment(s). Upon notification, the contract bank shall purchase the amount of foreign currency required for the payment(s) and provide the Defense Finance and Accounting Service - Columbus Center the exchange rate and U.S. Dollar equivalent. The Defense Finance and Accounting Service - Columbus Center will process the payment(s) in U.S. Dollars for deposit into an established account for subsequent transfer by the contract bank to the payee in the specified foreign currency. The contract bank should have the capability of transferring foreign currency via Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT) or Check/Draft. The proposed system should eliminate the need for Limited Depository Accounts (LDAs), as outlined in the DoDFMR, Volume 5, Chapter 14. 2. Erroneous Payments - In the event an erroneous payment is made, it may be necessary for the contract bank to research the payment and provide copies of documents related to that payment. If the payment must be voided and collected back into the account, the contract bank must refund the exact U.S. Dollar amount at the exchange rate quoted for the original disbursement resulting in no gain or loss due to exchange fluctuation. 3. Collections - The contract bank should also have the capability of receiving and forwarding collections from debtors. These would be payments made payable to the Defense Finance and Accounting Service - Columbus Center in a foreign currency. The contract bank would receive the foreign currency payments and convert such payments to a U.S. Dollar equivalent for deposit into an account. The contract bank would then forward the U.S. Dollar amount to the Defense Finance and Accounting Service - Columbus Center. The contracted process should have no limitations regarding the volume and dollar amount of Collection transactions being processed by the Contract Bank and forwarded to the Columbus Center. 4. Payment Date - The payment date shall be defined as the date on which foreign currency draft or electronic funds transfer (EFT) payments are dated. The Defense Finance and Accounting Service - Columbus Center shall establish the payment date in which the foreign currency payment must be made. The contract bank shall be responsible to ensure the payment is made on the established payment date. Coordination will be made between the Defense Finance and Accounting Service - Columbus Center and contract bank to ensure funds are on deposit in the account on the payment date. The Contractor shall be able to lock in a rate for a minimum of ??current plus five business days?? for all supported currencies to allow time for transactions to be entered in DoD systems (i.e., entitlement, disbursing, and accounting systems). The contractor shall also be able to provide an exchange rate that is valid for entire day for all currencies. B. Disbursing Transactions: The average number of foreign currency transactions for the current Fiscal Year has been 135 transactions per month. The dollar amount of each transaction may range between $50 to $3,000,000 per transaction. With the consolidation of DFAS Europe to the Columbus Center, an increase in volume is projected to approximately 18,750 transactions a year. The contracted process should have no limitations regarding the volume and dollar amount of Disbursement transactions being processed by the Columbus Center. C. Fiduciary Relationship: By definition and according to the terms of the contract, the contract bank shall act as an instrument for the Defense Finance and Accounting - Columbus Center in processing foreign currency transactions. D. Records Retention: All records and data turned over to the Contractor as well as any new records and data created by the Contractor remain the property of the Government. The Contractor shall only use information obtained from direct input by DFAS staff or other data requesters into the Contractor's stand alone system for the purpose for which the data was provided. The Contractor shall be responsible for retaining the data, as a backup, for a minimum of 6 years and 3 month, as outlined in the Office of the Federal Register, National Archives, and Records Administration. This period will require the contract bank to continue the retention and availability of records beyond the expiration/termination of the contract. The contract bank shall retain transaction records that are consistent with the requirements of the Disbursing Office. E. System Architecture: Any foreign currency related product should be able to accommodate the following computer system architecture: Pentium 3 (900 Megahertz) IBM Compatible Personal Computers 128 Megabyte of RAM 20 Gigabyte Hard Drive. 3.5 Floppy and 32X CD ROM Drive. Windows 2000 (Note: Future plans will change to Windows XP). Office 97 Microsoft??s Internet Explorer 6.02 F. Support/Maintenance: It shall be incumbent upon the contract bank to support the process both administratively and technically. Such support should include material and training to explain the process with direct access to support personnel should questions or situations arise which require an immediate response. The Contractor??s primary representative or alternate(s) shall be available during normal duty hours within 60 minutes, and within 2 hours after normal duty hours to discuss problem areas. G. Type of Contract: Fixed Price Contract: The proposal should be structured in such a way as to provide a fixed price for establishing, maintaining and supporting the proposed process. The offeror shall address the capability to perform and all costs associated with their proposed process, to include: ?h Training in the use of foreign currency system. ?h Manuals explaining the use of applicable system. ?h Upgrades of applicable system. ?h Batch processing of files. ?h Purchasing and selling foreign currency. ?h Disbursing and collecting foreign currency. ?h Revising financial reports. ?h Designing financial reports. ?h Overdraft charges. ?h Stop payment charges ?h Payment aggregation charges ?h Researching disbursements and collections. ?h Setting up repetitive payment data. ?h Expanding data fields in proposed foreign currency system. ?h Expanding the number of foreign currencies available. ?h Expanding the method of disbursing foreign currency (i.e., draft/wire/cash). ?h Monthly maintenance fee on any established account(s). In addition, the Contractor shall use a Treasury General Account, whenever possible, when establishing accounts with DoD. H. Period of Performance: The contracted process shall be maintained and supported for a period of 1 year from January 1, 2004 through December 31, 2004, with an optional annual renewal period not to exceed December 31, 2008. I. Transition Period: In the event a different process from the current one is selected under this solicitation, it will be incumbent upon the contract bank to minimize the transitional impact by having its respective process fully operational at the Defense Finance and Accounting Service-Columbus Center no later that January 2, 2003. J. System Requirements: ?h The Contractor foreign currency system must be a fully functional Web based system with no requirements for any software to be loaded on users PCs. ?h The use of standalone PCs, modem, installation of any software or phone based system(s) is not permitted. ?h The foreign currency system must be able to upload multiple files in different formats on a daily basis. Currently the Columbus Center anticipates that there could be up to 6 different files uploaded on daily basis each with a different format. With the ongoing effort of the DFAS-Europe consolidation and other Columbus Center initiatives there is a potential for additional files, consolidation of existing files or change in existing layouts. The Columbus Center will coordinate these changes with the contracted bank. ?h The foreign currency system must have the ability to allow for files uploaded in method described above to be certified manually. ?h The foreign currency system must aggregate payments received in file upload process described above on a per file basis. Aggregation of transactions between files is not required or desired. ?h The Contractors system should be able to aggregate multiple invoices for payment. The cost for this type of transaction, if different than normal transactions, must be itemized in the pricing schedule. See Type of Contract above. ?h The foreign currency system must be able to provide reports with transactions in a pre-aggregated format as well as in an aggregated format. ?h The contractor must have the ability to pull a file from a server and import data into the system or receive a file via FTP directly from the Columbus Center. These transactions will also need to be aggregated. ?h The Contractor??s system should allow for importing of a file from an Access database to originate the payment transactions. ?h All transactions regardless of the method input must be posted to a single web based system. The use of multiple systems is not acceptable. ?h The foreign currency system must have remote browse only access availability with the ability to have individually unique user level reports. ?h Remote browse access available for us in both CONUS and OCONUS locations. ?h The foreign currency system must be available for the entire work day of the Columbus Center??s and DFAS Europe??s hours of operations. ?h The foreign currency system must have the ability to input repetitive payment instructions without inputting an actual payment. ?h The system must have multiple repetitive modules and they must be available for both OCONUS and CONUS locations. ?h The separate repetitive module must have both input and separate certification/approval of the repetitive data for both OCONUS and CONUS locations. ?h The system must provide a paperless confirmation. ?h The system must allow for simultaneous multi-user access. ?h Describe your payment notification capabilities. ?h The system should be able to handle electronic payments overseas in US dollars. If pricing different it must be itemized in the pricing schedule. See Type of Contracts above. ?h The system should support the import of a flat file from any Columbus Center system. ?h The system should provide for the download of the payment confirmation file with exchange rate and USD equivalent in either text or Excel format. ?h The system should allow for the Consolidating financial data into one report. 3. DELIVERABLES Reporting requirements for the contract bank shall consist of: ?h A monthly report of activity that shall include at a minimum the number of transactions and the nature of those transactions (i.e. disbursements, collections, stopped payments, etc.). ?h A statement of charges for transaction processing and account maintenance. ?h A system generated report to support monthly bill. ?h A fiscal year end report for all activity on the account shall be prepared at the conclusion of the fiscal year. 4. EVALUATION A. The primary evaluation factors are listed below in ascending order of importance, unless otherwise indicated. 1. Operational Approach The offeror shall provide a concise summary in response to Paragraphs 2.A-D as outlined in this Statement of Work. The offeror shall also address his/her capability of meeting the transitional requirements specified under Paragraph 2.I. This section is limited to eight (8) pages, including any addendums, and should address any planned future enhancement to the proposed process. 2. Technical Approach The offeror shall provide a list of all support and maintenance functions related to their proposed process as outlined under Paragraphs 2.E-F. This section is limited to four (4) pages, including any addendums. 3. Cost The offeror shall provide a detailed list of all costs associated with the implementation, maintenance and support of the process. This section should clearly address costs related to items listed under Paragraph 2.G and is limited to four (4) pages, including any addendums. 4. System Requirements The offeror shall provide a concise summary in response to items listed under Paragraph 2.J and is limited to five (5) pages, including any addendums. B. Scoring Method. The following method will be used in assessing each operational, technical and cost proposal as outlined in this Statement of Work: Outstanding-4 Very significantly exceeds most or all of the requirements. Response exceeds a "Better" rating. The Offeror has clearly demonstrated an understanding of all aspects of the requirements to the extent that timely and highest quality performance is anticipated. Better-3 Fully meets all of the requirements and significantly exceeds many of the requirements. Response exceeds an "Acceptable" rating. The areas in which the Offeror exceeds the requirements are anticipated to result in a high level of efficiency or productivity or quality. Acceptable-2 Meets all of the requirements. Complete, comprehensive, and exemplifies an understanding of the scope and depth of the task requirements as well as the Offeror's understanding of the Government's requirements. Marginal-1 Less than "Acceptable." There are some deficiencies in the technical proposal. However, given the opportunity for discussions, the technical proposal has a reasonable chance of becoming at least "Acceptable." (Areas of a technical proposal which remain to be "Marginal" after "Final Revisions" offers shall not be subject to further discussion or revision.) If award is made on initial offers, there will not be an opportunity for discussions, nor a chance to become at least "Acceptable." Unacceptable-0 Technical proposal has many deficiencies and/or gross omissions: Failure to understand much of the scope of work necessary to perform the required tasks; failure to provide a reasonable, logical approach to fulfilling much of the Government's requirements; failure to meet many of the requirements. (When applying this adjective to the technical proposal as a whole, the technical proposal must be so unacceptable in one or more areas that it would have to be completely revised to attempt to make it other than unacceptable.) 5. AWARD - BEST VALUE A. The Government intends to evaluate proposals and award a contract without discussions with Offerors. However, the Government reserves the right to conduct discussions if later determined by the Contracting Officer to be necessary. Therefore, each initial offer should contain the Offeror's best terms from an operational, technical and cost standpoint. B. Proposals received in response to this solicitation will be evaluated by the Defense Finance and Accounting Service pursuant to the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) and the Department of Defense Supplement (DFARS). One contractor will be selected for award on the basis of their proposal being the most advantageous to the Government. C. All evaluation factors other than cost or price, when combined, are equally as important as cost or price. As such, the Government may elect to pay a price premium to select an Offeror whose operational and/or technical evaluation factors are superior.
Place of Performance: Address: Defense Finance & Accounting Service, DFAS - Columbus Center, ATTN: Disbursing, 3990 E. Broad St., Bldg 21, Columbus, OH,; Zip Code: 43213; Country: USA
Record: SN00475173-W 20031123/031121230956 (fbodaily.com)
Source: FedBizOpps.gov Link to This Notice
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R -- Foreign Currency Payment Transactions