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RFP 15JPSS24R00000004, Private Counsel Debt Collection – District of Puerto Rico Responses to Vendor Questions
| Question/Comment |
| Response |
| Please reconfirm the due date for this procurement by providing it in response to answers to questions. |
| Proposals are due no later than September 11, 2024 at 4:30p.m. ET. |
| What is the date by which you will answer these questions? |
| The Department’s responses, along with the questions, will be posted to the Contract Opportunities website, https://sam.gov/content/opportunities |
| If there was a previous solicitation for these services, what was the title, number, release date, and due date? |
| Title: Private Counsel Debt Collection – United States District Court for the District of Puerto Rico, RFP Number: 15JPSS19R00000001, Solicitation Date: 10/8/2019, Due Date: 11/7/2019 |
| Are bidders permitted to deviate in any way from any manner of quoting fees you may be expecting? For example, if there is a pricing page in the RFP, can bidders submit an alternate fee structure? If there is no pricing page in the RFP, do you have any preference for how bidders should quote fees or can bidders create their own pricing categories? |
| Offerors shall not deviate from the requirements of the solicitation. |
All offerors must insert the fixed unit rates for the specified line items utilizing the file entitled “Price Proposal Template” associated with this solicitation.
| Please describe your level of satisfaction with your current or recent vendor(s) for the same purchasing activity, if applicable. |
| The Department is satisfied with the contractor’s performance on the current contract. |
| Has the current contract gone full term? |
| No. |
| Have all options to extend the current contract been exercised? |
| Not applicable. |
| Who is the incumbent, and how long has the incumbent been providing the requested services? |
| The incumbent contractor is Fortuno & Fortuno Fas, CSP. They have been providing services since January 1, 2020. |
| How are fees currently being billed by any incumbent(s), by category, and at what rates? |
| All incumbent contractors use the same pricing model provided within the solicitation, and their rates cannot be disclosed. |
| What estimated or actual dollars were paid last year, last month, or last quarter to any incumbent(s)? |
| This information is not readily available. |
| To how many vendors are you seeking to award a contract? |
| One (1). |
| To what extent are these accounts owed by private consumers versus commercial businesses? |
| The majority of these accounts are private consumers whose debts arise out of federal loan programs. |
| Will accounts be primary placements, not having been services by any other outside collection agency, and/or will you also be referring secondary placements? If so, should bidders provide proposed fees for secondary placements also? |
| Bidders need only propose rates as indicated in the solicitation’s contract pricing table. |
| What collection attempts are performed or will be performed internally prior to placement? |
| Federal agencies exhaust their own collection protocol, including referral to the Treasury Fiscal Bureau Service prior to referring a case to the DOJ’s Nationwide Central Intake Facility (NCIF). The DOJ NCIF sends a demand letter to each debtor as the cases are assigned to a DOJ Private Counsel for litigation and collection. |
| What is the average age of accounts at placement (at time of award and/or on a going-forward basis), by category? |
| Please refer to the combined synopsis/solicitation notice. It includes the caseload information. |
| What is the monthly or quarterly number of accounts expected to be placed with the vendor(s) by category? |
| Please refer to the combined synopsis/solicitation notice. It includes the caseload information. We cannot predict the volume of intake of additional accounts to the existing caseload. |
| What is the monthly or quarterly dollar value of accounts expected to be placed with the vendor(s) by category? |
| Please refer to the combined synopsis/solicitation notice. It includes the caseload information. We cannot predict the volume of intake of additional accounts to the existing caseload. |
| What has been the historical rate of return or liquidation rate provided by any incumbent(s), and/or what is anticipated or expected as a result of this procurement? |
| We do not track the rate of return or liquidation rates on these accounts. The combined synopsis/solicitation notice includes the caseload information. We cannot predict future rates for these accounts. |
| Can you please indicate what inbound and outbound contact methods, beyond phone calls or letters (such as email and text), would be permitted by the scope of work? |
| All contractors must work in strict compliance with the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA) which provides guidance on how communications in debt collection must be conducted with consumers. Only communications done within the scope of the FDCPA are permissible. |
