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FBO DAILY ISSUE OF DECEMBER 17, 2011 FBO #3675
SOLICITATION NOTICE

D -- Primary Paying Agent Services

Notice Date

12/15/2011
 

Notice Type

Presolicitation
 

NAICS

541214 — Payroll Services
 

Contracting Office

Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation, Chief Management Officer, Procurement Department, Suite 1090, 1200 K Street, N.W., Washington, District of Columbia, 20005-4026
 

ZIP Code

20005-4026
 

Solicitation Number

PBGC01-RP-12-0006
 

Archive Date

7/31/2012
 

Point of Contact

Roland Thomas, Phone: 202-326-4160 x3700, Norman Cofer, Phone: 202-326-4160 x3334
 

E-Mail Address

Thomas.Roland@pbgc.gov, cofer.norman@pbgc.gov
(Thomas.Roland@pbgc.gov, cofer.norman@pbgc.gov)
 

Small Business Set-Aside

N/A
 

Description

The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC), a United States government corporation and agency of the United States, was created under Title IV of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) to administer the federal pension insurance program and enforce compliance with the provisions of Title IV. The PBGC, Benefit Payments and Administration Department (BAPD), has a requirement for a primary paying agent. The contractor shall serve as the primary paying agent and tax/deduction withholding agent with respect to the participants in defined benefit pension plans for which PBGC has assumed benefit administration responsibility. The NAICS code is 541214 (Payroll Services) with a small business standard size of $8.5 million. The anticipated contract will have a base period of performance of twelve (12) months and four (4) option periods consisting of twelve (12) months each. In order to be eligible for award, all responsible sources must be registered in the Central Contractor Registration (CCR) database. Contractors may register online at the website, www.ccr.gov. The solicitation and any amendments will be available through the Federal Business Opportunities (FBO) website, www.fbo.gov. PBGC anticipates issuing the solicitation on or about February 21, 2012 and making an award on or about June 12, 2012. These dates are approximate. Interested parties are responsible for monitoring the FBO website for the most up-to-date information concerning this forthcoming solicitation. When an offeror's teaming arrangement is proposed, such offerors shall submit adequate documentation to substantiate that a bona fide arrangement exists between the team partners. This documentation shall fully disclose the company's relationships along with any other evidence supporting the existence of the offeror's teaming arrangements. Paper copies of the solicitation and any amendments will not be distributed. Upon issuance of the solicitation, there will be an identified question and answer period. Further inquiries regarding this solicitation must be sent to Roland Thomas, Contracting Officer at thomas.roland@pbgc.gov, Norman Cofer, Contracting Officer at cofer.norman@pbgc.gov and Melody Bryant, Contract Specialist at bryant.melody@pbgc.gov. Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation Paying Agent (PA) Services Synopsis PBGC disburses about 800,000 benefit payments each month totaling above $5 billion annually to retirees in over 4,000 terminated private-sector single-employer defined benefit pension plans. PBGC is seeking the most cost-effective Paying Agent (PA) solution that the market has to offer subject to identified PBGC constraints (e.g. organizational structure, risk profile, system limitations, file formats, business processes). PA services are overseen by the Benefits Payment Branch (BPB) of the Retiree Services Division (RSD) within the Benefits Administration and Payments Department (BAPD). PBGC maintains its own pension recordkeeping system for over 1.5 million participants. That system packages payment changes (adds and updates) and transmits them to the PA's pension payment system several times each month. Services sought include the following (activities flagged with * indicate an opportunity for departure, or potential departure from historical practices, bracketed numbers indicate fiscal year (Oct-Sept) 2011 volumes: • Perform all services in observable compliance with: o The Federal Information Security Management Act (FISMA), associated National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Special Publications (e.g. 800-37, 800-60, 800-53, 800-53A, 800-137, 800-34 and other applicable NIST standards), and evolving PBGC Enterprise Information Security Office (EISO) policies and procedures including Information Security Requirements for Externally Hosted Systems. Safeguarding sensitive PBGC data (protecting its availability, confidentiality and integrity in accordance with FIPS 199/200 requirements), access controls, configuration management, contingency planning (including continuity of operations) and a rigorous continuous monitoring plan are of especially critical importance. Most of PBGC data, including data loaded into the PA's pension payment system, requires NIST 800-53 controls required of moderate risk systems. The required high-level process is as follows. It is expected that after contract award, items 1 - 6 will be completed before the PA's pension payment system can go live with PBGC data: 1. Define the control environment of the PA's pension payment system 2. Assess the adequacy of the control environment against NIST 800-53 controls 3. Document the gaps 4. Develop plan of actions and milestones (POA&M) to close the gaps 5. Evaluate the risks of operating the system based on items 1 - 4 6. Decide to authorize the operation of the PA's pension payment system (or not) - A Federal Responsibility 7. Monitor the progress of the POA&M 8. Continually evaluate the effectiveness of the control environment. The failure to obtain and maintain a valid system security authorization will be grounds for termination of the contract. o A sound system of internal controls as evidenced by, among other things, annual SSAE No. 16 (formerly SAS 70) covering internal control over all operations associated with PBGC benefit payments including any services performed by sub-service organizations (e.g. subcontractors/joint ventures for outsourced IT, print/mail, tax, check image services). • Support PBGC audits including those sponsored by PBGC's Inspector General (see for example the report on internal controls at http://oig.pbgc.gov) [In FY11 this included 8 full days at contractor sites]. • Disburse benefit payments to PBGC payees via EFT PPD [7 million] & IAT* [0] entries and paper checks [2 million]. Payments include: o Monthly annuities [9 million], back payments [32,000]. and other payments payable on the first of the month; o Lump sum distributions [13,000] and other payments *weekly [2,200]. o Unique-situation payments [1,600 Fleming, 57 Page-Collins settlement, 0 Rettig/SID settlement (last was 12/2009) payments] • Calculate, withhold, remit to IRS & report to IRS & to PBGC payees federal income taxes (not state income taxes) • Withhold and remit PBGC-approved IRS levies and a limited number of medical/life deductions to support unique agreements (~4,000 payees in several steel plans). • Maintain PBGC sensitive data, including personally identifiable information (PII), on contractor-owned pension payment system hosted within the United States and accessible only to authorized employees from within the United States. • Continue recurring payments until PBGC transmits a change (recurring payments are mostly monthly but some quarterly, semi-annual and annual). • Provide read-only web access to about 500 PBGC users and limited read-write access to about 10* PBGC/BPB users to the contractor's pension payment system. • Exchange data between PBGC's benefit administration systems, including: o approved payment changes from PBGC [450,000]; o acknowledgement of approved changes from contractor; o trial balance projection from contractor; o payment history (payee sub-ledgers) from contractor; o NOC & ACH return files from contractor; o potentially tax forms (e.g. 1099-R) & check images from contractor for PBGC's Image Processing System (IPS)*; o potentially daily individual payee settlement data (e.g. checks that have cleared) from contractor*. • Provide a web service for PBGC's MyPBA online self-service system (www.pbgc.gov/mypba) to serve payment history data (payee sub-ledgers) and images of checks and tax forms (e.g. 1099-R, 1042-S) to PBGC payees. • Provide exception processing services including: o delete pending ACH payments prior to submission to the ACH Operator [5,100]; o stop payment on checks [16,000]; o reissue stopped checks to permanent address [9,300]; o reissue stopped checks to temporary address [2,300]; o express mail reissued checks [340] o issue manual checks in rare situations [30] o process ACH returns [6,600]; o issue replacement checks for ACH returns [5,200]; o resolve returned replacement checks for ACH returns [470]; o return funds to PBGC for stopped or returned payments not reissued [6,800]; o return funds to PBGC for stale-dated checks [4,800]; o issue replacement checks for stale-dated checks upon PBGC request o process approved manual changes and enter data into the PA's pension payment system [400]; o potentially process ACH pre-notification entries* [0]; o process ACH notices of change (NOC) [8,400]; o process ACH reclamations [8,500], recoveries* [0], and written demands to RDFIs for payment [500]; o process ACH traces [1,100]; o provide copies of paid checks not available to PBGC via contractor's pension payment system [800] o process payment history (payee sub-ledger) adjustments; o recover (or net) tax overpayments from the IRS; o disburse overpayment refunds to PBGC payees [200]; o investigate potential fraud. • Support written and oral communications with or involving payees including: o mail checks with custom PBGC messages and occasional inserts (e.g. EFT marketing brochure, newsletter); o mail statements to payees (e.g. net change, trustee to trustee transfer, net zero) [190,000]; o use PBGC's Document Management Center's (DMC) address as the return address on all outgoing written communications to PBGC payees*; o forward incoming mail from individual PBGC payees to PBGC's DMC* [In FY11 PA processed (scan/index) 15,000 mail pieces, but at that time outgoing mail bore the PA's return address]; o direct calls from individual PBGC payees to PBGC's Customer Contact Center (CCC)* [In FY11 PA handled about 400 calls directly (not forwarded), but incoming calls will dwindle with PBGC return address on checks]; o forward subpoenas. and IRS tax levies to PBGC's Office of General Counsel for processing; o potentially* mail non-resident alien (NRA) letters and letters associated with IRS levies to PBGC payees. • Use certain PBGC systems for: o communication (Email, Web Portal); o exception processing (eCARF Portal); o research (e.g. Spectrum, CRM, IPS); o letter generation (eALG); o performance and other reporting (Paying Agent Acquisition Support Metrics - PAASM Portal). • Support financial management activities in accordance with PBGC's Financial Operations Department (FOD) requirements including: o manage transfers and other interactions with PBGC's custodian bank (currently State Street); o maintain insured cash accounts for PBGC benefit payment funds; o perform cash reconciliations for PBGC accounts; o calculate and request funding for benefit payments; o report recoupments/recoveries (e.g. for stopped checks, stale-dated checks, ACH returns); o provide other reports including a breakdown of funding by payment type and PBGC funding source (single-multi report).
 

Web Link

FBO.gov Permalink
(https://www.fbo.gov/spg/PBGC/CMO/PD/PBGC01-RP-12-0006 /listing.html)
 

Place of Performance

Address: Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation, 1200 K Street, NW, Washington, District of Columbia, 20005, United States

Zip Code: 20005
 

Record

SN02639544-W 20111217/111215233927-9987e8130f7fe67f9fc514bba9cc5fbd (fbodaily.com)
 

Source

FedBizOpps Link to This Notice
(may not be valid after Archive Date)

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