Questions_and_Answers_FINAL_0001.pdf

Questions and Answers:

RFQ # : 140A1626Q0072

A. Submission Deadline

1. Would the Government consider a one-week extension to the quotation submission deadline to allow quoters additional time to prepare a more comprehensive response?

Answer for A: Yes. The deadline for RFQ submission has been extended to 3:00 PM EST on August 6, 2026.

B. B. Scope of the Requirement and Enhancement Objectives

2. (SOW Sec. 1.3; SOW Sec. 2) SOW Section 1.3 identifies twenty "must continue" requirements, a set of Enhancement Objectives, and structured walkthroughs of requirements 1 through 20, while SOW Section 2 describes the enhancement and change-request process. Please confirm which of the following must be included in the quoted firm-fixed price: (a) continued operation and support of requirements 1 through 20; (b) implementation of all Enhancement Objectives; (c) structured walkthroughs for requirements 1 through 20. Please also confirm whether the Enhancement Objectives and walkthroughs must be completed during the base period or on a schedule established after award.

Answer for B:

Items a & c: Must be included in the quoted firm-fixed price.

Item b: The Enhancement Objectives may be established after scheduled award and an amendment is possible after the walkthoughs.

The walkthroughs are required to be finalized within the base period and may provide clarity for the Enhancement Objectives.

3. (SOW Sec. 1.3, Enhancement Objectives) If the Enhancement Objectives must be included in the quoted firm-fixed price, will the Government provide additional functional requirements, or may quoters develop pricing and technical approaches using clearly stated assumptions?

Answer for 3:

The Enhancement Objectives may be scheduled following the award. However, to enhance the loan management software (LMS), your quote must account for specialized functional requirements that handle complex regulatory, financial, and organizational workflows. See below 1-4 listed items.

1. Regulatory Compliance & Audit Controls:

• Automated Section 289 Reporting: Generate compliance exports matching U.S.

Department of the Interior reporting formats.

• Indian Loan Guarantee, Loan Insurance & Interest Subsidy Program Workflows: Embed

25 CFR § 103 criteria to track eligibility, approvals, and subsidy schedules.

• Immutable Audit Trail: Log every field change, user timestamp, and loan status shift, per policy & Co-hort year, for federal inspector general examiners and audit.

Financial Transaction Reporting: Format and transmit data updates automatically using

Collections specifications.

2. Advanced Loan Life Cycle & Transfers & Default

• External-Institution Loan Transfer: Build secure tools to transfer full loan portfolio data or single financial transaction account data between Native CDFIs, and commercial banks like Native American or F&M Bank.

• Tribal Enterprise Structuring: Configure parent-child accounting relationships for Tribes, tribally chartered enterprises and specialized community development financial institutions (CDFIs).

• Subsidy & Guarantee Co-Hort Tracking: Separate standard principal/interest streams from federal guaranteed subsidies or interest offsets within the general ledger (LAS).

• Defaulted Loans: Pay Claim for loss, Loan assigned to DCI for Collections.

• Debts not referred to Department of Treasury: TROR report (LAS)

3. Data Integration & Financial Automation

• Core Agency APIs: Connect data directly to agency ledgers to track active inflow/outflow flows (LAS).

• Automated ACH/Wire Processing: Support loan fee payment execution, and real-time settlement tracking (LAS).

• Document Parsing Engine: Extract income, asset data, and identity numbers from uploaded PDFs.

• Defaulted Loans: LAS creates a new loan: Extract Guarantee Loan data, Extract

Collections data

4. User Access & Workflow Guardrails

• Tiered Underwriter Roles: Restrict approval limits by user tier (e.g., Tier 1 up to $50k, Executive over $150k). Approvals based on uploaded required documents.

• Multi-Factor Authentication: Enforce hardware or app-based MFA for internal teams managing sensitive financial records.

4. (SOW p. 6, Enhancement Objectives, underwriting module) The Enhancement Objectives call for an underwriting module within the existing LMS. Please provide additional detail on the desired enhancements relative to the underwriting information the system captures today, including any required new forms, calculators, workflows, or other functionality.

Answer for 4:

In Excel Spreadsheet – Appendix A Current LMS has No Decision Support Tools – this would be part of underwriting

– calculations extracted from financial documents.

5. (SOW p. 7, Enhancement Objectives, portal) The Enhancement Objectives reference a public-facing link allowing lenders to upload documents against the documentation checklist. Please confirm whether the Government also seeks the ability for external users such as lenders to submit complete loan applications directly into LMS, or whether the intended scope is limited to document upload against the checklist.

Answer for 5:

Yes. A public facing link allowing approved lenders. Yes. Provide external users such as lenders to submit complete loan applications directly into LMS.

6. (SOW p. 7, Enhancement Objectives, application checklist) Please confirm whether the Government requires a digital application checklist identifying the documents and information required for a loan application, and whether the Government will furnish the current checklist contents and document naming conventions.

Answer for 6:

Yes. A digital application checklist. Checklist is Appendix B Yes. Claim for Loss checklist. Checklist is Appendix C Yes. Collections Notices: Appendix D: 1st & 2nd & 3rd Demand Notices, Payment Reminder Notice, 1st & 2nd & 3rd Late Payment Notices, Payoff Notice, Paid Settlement Notice, Paid In Full Notice, Promissory Note Notice, Waiver Request Response and DOI Letterhead.

C. Data Rights and Licensing

7. (RFQ Sec. 3.2; Sec. 3.1, FAR 52.227-19) Please clarify how the SHARE IT Act language, the Creative Commons Zero commitment, the code-posting requirement, FAR 52.227-14, and FAR 52.227-19 apply to a solution built on a pre-existing commercial software platform. Specifically, please confirm the treatment of: pre-existing proprietary platform software, tools, and documentation; configuration, reports, documentation, and custom code first produced under the order;

Government approval required before incorporating software that is not free and open source; and code and documentation subject to public posting, including the repository the Government will designate.

Answer: If the contractor's proposed solution is 100% custom code the SHARE IT Act applies. The contract specifies that all software, data, documentation, configuration code, and related materials first produced under this order must be released to the Government with Unlimited Rights under FAR 52.227-14. This includes all source code and documentation created in performance of the contract and must be made publicly available under the Creative Commons Zero (CC0) Universal Deed. The contractor must post all such developed code to the repository or repositories designated by the Government.

Pre-existing proprietary software, commercial software platforms, tools, and documentation that were not first produced under this contract remain subject to their standard commercial licenses. FAR 52.227-19 governs these commercial computer software items, and they are not required to be released under CC0 or posted publicly.

If the contractor proposes to incorporate any software that is not free and open source into the delivered solution, the contractor must obtain prior Government permission. The contractor must also promptly disclose and list all incorporated software that carries any restriction or limitation within the contract documentation.

Only materials first produced under this contract—including custom code, configurations, reports, and documentation—are subject to the CC0 public domain commitment and the Government’s code-posting requirements.

Commercial or proprietary pre-existing software components are not subject to these posting requirements.

D. Set-Aside Status, IEE Representation, and Subcontracting

8. (SF 1449 Block 10; RFQ Sec. 1.3) SF 1449 Block 10 is marked "Unrestricted," while RFQ Section 1.3 states the acquisition is set aside 100% for Indian Economic Enterprises. Please confirm the applicable set-aside status.

Answer: The RFQ is exclusively reserved for ISBEE participation.

9. (RFQ Sec. 4.2; Sec. 5) Section 4.2 requires a signed IEE Representation Form and Section 5 lists it as Attachment 2; however, the form was not included in the posted solicitation package. Please provide the required form.

Answer: Form is provided in Amendment 1 RFQ

10. (DIAR 1452.280-3; FAR 52.219-14) For purposes of DIAR 1452.280-3 and FAR 52.219-14, please confirm how commercial software-license and third-party cloud-hosting costs will be treated in determining compliance with the applicable limitation on subcontracting.

Answer: Commercial license charges, hosting fees, and other platform-related pass-through costs are considered non-labor, non-service expenditures and are not included in the subcontracting base used to assess compliance with the limitation-on-subcontracting requirements

The prime Indian Economic Enterprise (IEE) must perform the required percentage of service work, but the cost of software licenses or hosting infrastructure does not reduce the level of work the prime must perform.

Because these costs are excluded, they may be purchased from non-IEE sources without impacting DIAR or FAR subcontracting thresholds.

Any contractor- or subcontractor-provided labor, such as engineering, configuration, or operational support, does count toward the subcontracting limitation and must comply with DIAR 1452.280-3.

11. (RFQ Sec. 1.1) Section 1.1 requires the quoter to be an authorized reseller of its quoted solution. Please confirm whether evidence of reseller authorization must be submitted with the quotation and what form of evidence is acceptable.

Answer: Yes, proof of reseller status must be submitted in any form.

E. Functional Requirements

12. (SOW Sec. 1.3, Req. 8) Requirement 8 requires alerts when accounts become delinquent. Please provide, or confirm that the Government will establish after award, the applicable delinquency rules and the required delivery method. Please also clarify who should receive the alerts — internal users such as loan specialists and Zone Managers, external users such as lenders, or both.

Answer for 12:

Alerts will go to Division Chief and Collection staff. Approval of users will also need to be a requirement.

13. (SOW Sec. 1.3, Req. 20) Requirement 20 requires a global search bar, fuzzy search, and typo tolerance. Please confirm whether these search enhancements must be operational at the start of the base period or may be implemented during the base period pursuant to an agreed implementation schedule.

Answer for 13:

Search enhancements may be implemented during the base period pursuant to an agreed implementation schedule.

14. (SOW Sec. 1.3, Req. 17) Requirement 17 addresses interfacing report data with FBMS.

Please confirm whether the solution must support any external systems or interfaces beyond FBMS and, if so, identify those systems and the expected integration requirements.

Answer: the only external system the Government requires the LMS to interface with under this order is FBMS (Financial and Business Management System).

15. (SOW Sec. 1.3, Req. 18) Requirement 18 addresses linking closed files with authorized loan forgiveness, cancellation orders, or fulfilled settlement agreements, and housing or accessing the relevant documents. Please confirm whether the Government seeks enhancements to existing document management functionality and, if so, describe the desired capabilities.

Answer for 15:

Link Assigned and Direct Loan files: Activities for Aged Receivables/ CNC Priority List.

Relevant documents and Status; Total break down of amounts due at the end of each QTR linked to TROR – upon staff request.

File Software: DOI E File Management software (eERDMS) not Sharepoint.

16. (SOW Sec. 1.2 background; Sec. 1.3) The SOW background references the Treasury Report on Receivables (TROR), Debt Collection Activities, and aged receivables reporting.

These are not listed among the twenty system requirements or the Enhancement Objectives. Please confirm whether this reporting functionality is a required deliverable under this order. If it is required, please provide the applicable calculation logic and output specifications, identify any additional data elements that must be captured beyond those the system captures today, or confirm that quoters may state assumptions and address final requirements through the change-request process.

Answer for 16: Functionality answers are under Answer for Question 3 and information is in Appendix C & D. If answers under 3 and Appendixes are not enough, let’s re-visit question #16.

17. (SOW Sec. 1.3, Enhancement Objectives) For the public-facing lender upload capability, please confirm the anticipated number of external users, authentication requirements and applicable identity-assurance level, the required security authorization boundary, and applicable Section 508 requirements.

Answer for 17: The anticipated number of external users: 50

F. Security, Service Levels, and Sizing

18. (SOW Sec. 1.3; SOW Sec. 3) Please confirm the required FedRAMP impact level, the FIPS 199 security categorization for LMS, and whether an agency Authority to Operate is required in addition to the hosting environment's FedRAMP authorization. Please also identify the contractor's expected responsibilities for security authorization, continuous monitoring, and reauthorization.

Answers for 18: FEDRamp

1. IA-LMS Users Guide – The user guide served as a reference for the two training classes onsite to train on the system functionality. It also included several hands-on exercises.

a. 4-day in-person training - prior to User Acceptance Testing (UAT)

b. 3-day in-person and remote refresher training - when the system went live after Authority to Operate (ATO) was granted.

2. Technical Design Document - detailing the forms and underlying database data dictionary

3. Additionally, assistance to BIA IT during the Assessment and Authorization (A&A) over a period of 9 months providing content for various security controls. Documents:

BIA’s Information System Security Officer (ISSO).

To perform major upgrade of the current LMS to Tyler Application Platform. The following are submitted documents.

4. LMS Test Scripts & Results – Shared its test scripts and results with BIA. Executed and verified the loan workflows leveraging these scripts in the User Acceptance Testing (UAT)- before acceptance.

5. Implementation and Test Plan for AS-IA – a document - per BIA IT’s requirements.

6. Additional documentation: may have been provided to BIA IT/Security for some recent assessments that we are not privy to.

Besides these documents, instructions to BIA Security to download the FedRAMP package for the Tyler Application Platform that provide the requisite details for contingency plan, disaster recovery and other operations of the platform. Note that the FedRAMP package can only be downloaded and is accessible by select security personnel at BIA.

Code Package There is no separate code package. The Tyler Application Platform includes an integrated development environment (IDE) for code development with its own source code control system. IA-LMS code in the platform is greatly restricted w/security permissions and user roles. In Production environment, the access to the code base is disabled.

Software License Currently IA-LMS has a 10-user license which means that up to 10 users can log in and operate in IA-LMS concurrently. Contactor must contact GDIT for any pricing details.

19. (SOW Sec. 1.3) The SOW states that a Service Level Agreement will be provided later during the project. Please provide the availability, incident-response, and resolution targets quoters should use for firm-fixed-price purposes, or confirm that quoters may state reasonable SLA assumptions.

Answer: Quoters may state reasonable SLA assumptions.

20. (SOW Sec. 3) Please confirm whether contractor personnel will require background investigations or HSPD-12 credentials, and identify the applicable level and the roles affected.

Answer for 20: Yes. Contractor personnel will require background investigations, HSPD-12 credentials, and identify the applicable level and the roles affected.

21. (SOW Sec. 1.3) Please confirm the required number of named users and concurrent users for the base and option periods. If those figures are not available, may quoters price based on clearly stated user-count assumptions?

Answer for 21: The required number of named users: 25

G. Quotation Instructions and Pricing

22. (RFQ Sec. 4.2; FAR 52.212-2) Please confirm whether quoters must submit a written technical quotation addressing the six evaluation factors. If so, please identify any applicable page limits, formatting requirements, file-format requirements, and file-naming conventions.

Answer: A written technical quote is required.

- The technical quote must not exceed 20 pages.

- The page limit excludes sections covering past performance and resumes.

23. (FAR 52.212-2, Factor 5) For Factor 5, please confirm whether resumes are required, which positions are considered key personnel, and whether any resume format or page limit applies.

Answer for 23: Resumes are not required for FFFP order.

24. (FAR 52.212-2, Factor 6) For Factor 6, please confirm: the number of past-performance references required and the applicable recency period; whether a prescribed format or past-performance questionnaire is required; and whether the Government will evaluate relevant subcontractor and solution-provider past performance.

Answer for 24: Minimum 3 past performance required. Government will accept and evaluate relevant subcontractor and solution-provider past performance.

25. (SF 1449; RFQ Sec. 4.2) Please confirm whether pricing should consist of a single firm-fixed-price amount for each base and option-year CLIN or should include a breakdown for licenses, hosting, support, and enhancements. Please also confirm whether pricing should be entered on the SF 1449, submitted as a separate attachment, or both; whether separately priced optional capabilities are permitted; and whether separate pricing is required for the potential six-month extension of services under FAR 52.217-8.

Answer for 25: Include a breakdown for licenses, hosting, support, and enhancements.

For the purposes of this RFQ, quoters shall provide one firm-fixed-price amount for each CLIN, including each base-year CLIN and each option-year CLIN. The firm-fixed-price for each CLIN shall represent the total price for all required performance associated with that CLIN, and may be supported by a breakdown (e.g., licenses, hosting, support, and enhancements) submitted as a separate pricing attachment. This breakdown is required and provided solely for Government understanding; however, the official evaluated price will be the single firm-fixed-price amount entered for each CLIN.

Pricing must be entered on the SF 1449 and may also be included in a separate pricing attachment. If a separate attachment is submitted, the CLIN structure and totals must match the SF 1449 exactly.

Separately priced optional capabilities are not permitted unless explicitly listed as optional CLINs in the RFQ. Quoters shall not add or propose additional optional CLINs.

In accordance with FAR 52.217-8, quoters are requested to provide separate pricing for the potential six-month extension of services. However, submission of this pricing is not required at this time; it will be requested if and when an extension becomes necessary.

H. Place of Performance

26. (SOW Sec. 6; RFQ Sec. 1.6; SF 1449 p. 2) Please confirm the place of performance, whether any recurring on-site presence is required, and the correct delivery and correspondence address. SOW Section 6 is not populated, and the SF 1449 and RFQ Section 1.6 identify different addresses.

Answer: All work will be performed remotely.

27. Is this a new or ongoing requirement? If the latter, who is the incumbent?

Answer: This is a follow-on to an order that was primarily hosting & help desk support, with minimal development/enhancements. Enhancements are being scoped back into this requirement. Prime must be an authorized partner of the platform provider, Tyler Federal. The incumbent is General Dynamics.