SOO-20MAY2013-FINAL.pdf

STATEMENT OF OBJECTIVES

FOR

BENEFITS ADMINISTRATION CONSULTING SERVICES

OFFICE OF D.C. PENSIONS

MAY 20, 2013

1. BACKGROUND

The Balanced Budget Act of 1997, as amended (the Act), requires the Secretary of the Treasury to assume certain responsibilities for District of Columbia judges, teachers, police and firefighters pension plans. These responsibilities, which have been delegated by the Secretary to the Office of D.C. Pensions, include investment and management of fund assets, distribution of certain pension benefits, and management control and benefits administration of these pension plans. Treasury is responsible for the administration of payments for benefits earned through June 30, 1997, under the Police Officers and Firefighters Retirement Plan and the Teachers Retirement Plan. The District is responsible for paying benefits earned after June 30, 1997. Treasury is responsible for paying all benefits earned, both through June 30, 1997 and after June 30, 1997, under the Judges Retirement Plan.

As part of its responsibilities under the Act, the Office of D.C. Pensions (ODCP) led the development and implementation of an integrated pension/payroll system, called The System to Administer Retirements (STAR). The system provides for comprehensive annuitant support ranging from initial retirement calculations and maintenance of personal and benefits to survivor and beneficiary processing.

To meet these responsibilities, ODCP partnered with the D.C. Retirement Board (DCRB) and the Bureau of Public Debt (BPD) to provide pension payment services. The D.C. Retirement Board (DCRB) serves as the Benefits Administrator for the teachers, police officers and firefighters. ODCP serves as the Benefits Administrator for the judges. The BPD is responsible for the backend processing of payroll as well as providing ongoing technical support and STAR maintenance.

2. SCOPE OF OBJECTIVES/REQUIREMENTS

The objective of this contract is to: 1) enhance the administration of D.C. pension programs in conjunction with STAR in order for District employees (police officers, firefighters, teachers, and judges) to receive those benefits to which they are entitled in a timely and accurate manner and 2) to review and correct, where necessary, benefit payments made for the retirement plans for D.C.

police officers, firefighters, teachers, and judges, in order for such District employees to receive those benefits to which they are entitled in a timely, accurate and customer-oriented manner.

Treasury requires contractor assistance in the benefits administration of the above mentioned pension plans to include:

Benefits determination/correction – reviewing and correcting retirement calculations o Calculating benefits for police officers, firefighters, teachers and judges in compliance with legislation o Researching laws to determine which annuitants’ benefits may be affected and require recalculation o Identifying affected population o Recommending adjustments and/or terminations of annuity payments o Updating benefits in STAR

Annuity quality – providing quality assurance for benefits calculation work including quality reviews o Performing quality reviews o Recommending corrective actions

Change management/business process reengineering – assessing, analyzing, and improving or reengineering the underlying business processes and procedures o Reviewing and updating documented processes o Updating procedures and documentation thererof o Providing non-STAR training and procedures related to benefits activity(ies)

Customer service – responding to verbal and written inquiries from annuitants and benefits team members, providing communications to annuitants, and supporting annuitant counseling

Annuitant communication - creating annuitant communication, sending communication to annuitants, responding to annuitant inquiries, and tracking annuitant communication and responses. These services may require establishing a call center.

The Government expects contractor provided services and deliverables to be managed such that their work and work products are free of defects and errors. (Methods such as program management/control (including preparing project plans and written updates), setting established quality levels, and managing associated risks are recommended.) In addition, contractor solutions are expected to be provided in an appropriate format (i.e. error corrections should be delivered in a format that is compatible with entry into STAR and leverages to the fullest extent possible the functionality of the STAR system and tools supporting the system).

Performance-based task orders will be awarded under this requirement. The Government requires that the Contractor selected for this subject award will have knowledge of and experience with D.C.

pension plans or other comparable experience, in accordance with legislation identified in 3.1. The Government shall provide up to 80 hours of specific training, or as necessary and agreed to by the Government, for the Contractor to learn how to access retirement files and calculation worksheets as well as input corrections into STAR (either using a data mover script provided by the Government or inputting corrections manually and directly into STAR). The Government expects the Contractor will need to learn to access and use the retirement files (scanned or hard copy), and learn which documents are required to identify errors and benefit recalculations, and how to perform quality reviews to meet the Government’s objectives.

3. CONSTRAINTS

The following rules, regulations, and procedural guidance apply to the tasks orders issued under this IDIQ contract.

3.1 Legislation

3.1.1 Title XI of the Balanced Budget Act of 1997, Pub. L. 105-33, (111 Stat 251, 712); -

Available on the Internet or public library

3.1.2 Privacy Act of 1974; - Available on the Internet or public library

3.1.3 Title 5 (Police and Fire), Title 11 (Judges) and Title 38 (Teachers) of the Code of the

District of Columbia – Available on Westlaw or public library

3.1.4 31 C.F.R Part 29 (Appeals and Debt Collection, Benefits Determination, Benefit

Claims) – Available on the Internet or public library

3.2 Summary Plan Descriptions (SPDs) for D.C. Judges, Teachers, and Police Officers and

Firefighters – Available on the Internet. Please note that SPDs are a summary of the plan and not the plan. Vendors are required to use the plan rules.

3.3 Security Requirements in accordance with the Department of the Treasury regulations.

3.4 Memorandums of Understanding and legislation applicable to the identified effort.

4. MEETINGS

All meetings regarding specific task orders are attended by contractor personnel as required by the Government. This includes kick-off meetings, progress meetings, briefings to Government and any other meetings deemed necessary by the Government.