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Amendment 004 to Solicitation No. DJJB-11-RFP-0726
Private Counsel Debt Collection, Eastern District of Pennsylvania Posted June 22, 2011
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Amendment 004 to Solicitation No. DJJB-11-RFP-0726
Private Counsel Debt Collection, Eastern District of Pennsylvania
Posted June 22, 2011
The following information is provided in response to solicitation questions and is intended as clarification of the solicitation and requirement only. The actual solicitation remains unchanged.
| 1 |
| Will the DOJ accept and consider proposals that only contain bids for unsecured debt collections (CLIN 0001)? |
| Section L.5 provides explicit instructions regarding prices. As stated therein, “It is important to offer prices exactly as indicated and for all required work.” Failure to comply with this instruction could cause an offer to be rejected. |
| 2 |
| Please provide the liquidation rate of the collection of unsecured debt for the past 12, 24 and 36 months, respectively. |
| This information is not available. |
| 3 |
| What is the average age of the unsecured debt portfolio? |
| Seven years. |
| 4 |
| What is the closest time frame to the statute of limitations that DOJ will still consider sending for collection? |
| The majority of the cases do not have a statute of limitation. Cases with statutes of limitations are rarely assigned to Private Counsel. |
| 5 |
| Where may I obtain information about previous pricing (Section J.2 CLIN)? |
| The Department of Justice does not release offerors’/contractors’ prices. |
| 6 |
| Do the Approved "Generic" Written Instruments include the following documents: (A) Foreclosure Complaints referenced in CLIN 0002A; (B) Deed in Lieu of Foreclosure Agreements referenced in CLIN 0002B; (C) Motions and pleadings referenced in CLIN 0002C; (D) Motions and pleadings referenced in CLIN 0003; and (E) Motions and pleadings referenced in CLIN 0002A? |
| Yes, as well as any documents a firm uses. |
| 7 |
| Section C.6.3 of the RFP suggests that approximately 90% of unsecured debts "will be similar to ‘consumer' debts." In that regard, from what agencies would these consumer type unsecured debts originate, or what kinds of debt are these consumer type debts? |
| The Department of Education (Defaulted Student Loans) |
| 8 |
| Section H.5 requires the Contractor to maintain professional liability insurance "in an amount sufficient to protect the Government from any loss, which might be caused by the Contractor, or any of its agents or employees, during the performance of this Contract." How much insurance is considered "sufficient" for this requirement? |
| The Department of Justice does not dictate the amount of insurance warranted for this work. Each firm must use its discretion in establishing the appropriate amount of coverage. |
| 9 |
| Is there an incumbent contractor and who is the incumbent contractor? |
| Yes. The incumbent contract, no. DJJ04-C-1004, is held by the law firm of Goldbeck, McCafferty & McKeever. |
| 10 |
| Section B.2 explains that “debt collection cases will be assigned through the Nationwide Central Intake Facility (NCIF) using the Department’s Consolidated Debt Collection System (CDCS).” What is the intended breakdown of the cases that will be assigned regarding unsecured/contingency v. secured/fixed fee? |
| Cases are generally assigned on a rotational basis. See also Section F.3 “Consideration of Performance in Case Assignments”. |
| 11 |
| What is the reasonably anticipated volume of cases under the proposal (and, if possible, broken down by unsecured v. secured debt)? |
| Anticipated volume is based on the number of referrals from client government agencies which varies month to month and year to year. |
| 12 |
| Assuming there are multiple contractors awarded under the RFP, how will the assigned cases be divided amongst the contractors (i.e. by dollar amounts, number of cases, secured/unsecured, etc.) and how many cases are expected to be assigned to each contractor (i.e. is there a minimum or maximum, or at least an expected range)? |
| See answer to question 10. |
| 13 |
| What is the past rate of success on collections over the last three years (either by former contractors or by government agencies) and what was the average time period until collection? |
| That information is not available. |
| 14 |
| Section C.1 notes the various collection efforts that are conducted prior to the debts being referred to a contractor. Are the cases assigned a level of difficulty regarding collection and are the hard/easy cases split evenly amongst the contractors? |
| See answer to question 10. |
| 15 |
| Section C.2 requires all litigation to be brought in the state or local courts in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. May a contractor pursue a debtor outside the EDPA if that debtor is no longer physically present in the EDPA but still resides in the EDPA? |
| Yes. |
| 16 |
| Section C.5.1(a) states “the Government will pay the costs of training two (2) contractor employees”. Will the government compensate for the employees’ time during the training? |
| No, the Government will not pay the employee’s salary during training. Only those costs identified in Section C.5.1(a) are reimbursable under this contract. |
| 17 |
| Section C.6 discusses a certain type of case referral. Are those matters compensated at the same or a different contingency rate? |
| Same contingency fee rate. There is only one contingency fee rate throughout the life of the debt. |
| 18 |
| Section C.6.3 discusses the characterization of the debts as similar to commercial v. consumer debts. Is there an average amount of time that the debts are currently overdue for each of those general types of debts? |
| There are very few commercial debts for this district that will be assigned to the contractor. The majority of cases a contractor can expect are consumer. |
| 19 |
| What is the average pre-judgment aging of the collection matters that will be referred to the contractor(s)? |
| Five to seven years. |
| 20 |
| Section C.7.1.1 states that the Contractor will not receive any fees if there is a debt consolidation. Does that include a consolidation that occurs after a debt has been referred to the contractor and the contractor has begun collection efforts? |
| Yes; however, there are certain circumstances where the contractor will be compensated for their collection efforts. |
| 21 |
| Section C.9.2 provides that if the debtor no longer resides in the EDPA, then the contractor shall immediately return the case. What efforts are utilized to ensure the debtors currently reside in the EDPA before the case is referred to the contractor? |
| The referring agency’s debtor information is within the last six months. |
| 22 |
| Section C.12.1 discusses the types of foreclosure cases. |
Q: What is the typical breakdown of the more complex cases v. the more standard cases that are referred to the contractor, and, is there a system that monitors the percentage of each type that is typically referred to each contractor?
The more complex cases are handled by the USAO. Very rarely are such cases handled by the contractor.
| 23 |
| Section C.17 provides that a contractor “shall not be entitled to any additional attorney’s fee based upon its participation in the appeal, beyond the fee to which it would otherwise be entitled for handling the litigation in which the judgment being appealed was entered.” |
It seems that the price proposal would need to include any appellate litigation fees in its pricing proposal for the underlying case; therefore, what has been the historical percentage of cases that were appealed and were handled by the contractor?
There are no historical data on this issue.
| 24 |
| Please clarify what proposers should include that qualifies as “certificates in good standing”? |
| A Certificate of Good Standing is available from the Clerk of the U.S. District Court. Upon request, the Court will provide this certificate to state that the attorney was duly admitted to practice in said court as of a specific date and is in good standing as a member of the bar of said court. |
| 25 |
| To how many vendors are you seeking to award a contract. |
| See Section M.5. |
| 26 |
| Why is the contract out for bid at this time? |
| Because the Government has a requirement for these services. |
| 27 |
| Who are the incumbents, and how long have the incumbents been providing the requested services? |
| See answer to question 9. The incumbent contract has been in place since 2004. |
| 28 |
| What current contingency fees or other fees are currently being billed by any incumbents(s), by category? |
| See answer to question 5. |
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