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PERKINS LOAN SERVICING
Questions and Answers
Phase I – Solicitation
6/15/12
| 1. |
| Can the contractor operate anywhere within the United States? |
| Yes. All work, including all subcontract work and all data storage, must be performed within the United States. |
| 2. |
| Para 1.2 states: The Federally Held portfolio contains approximately 10,000 borrowers in non-default status, including approximately 13,200 loans valued at approximately $19.3 million, and approximately 48,000 defaulted borrowers, including approximately 63,300 loans valued at approximately $67.5 million. This implies that there are borrowers with multiple loans. Will a borrower be double-counted if it has both a good loan and a defaulted loan? |
| While a single borrower may have multiple loans, a borrower will not be double counted if it has a good loan and a defaulted loan. Defaulted loans will be serviced by FSA’s Debt Management Collection System. If a borrower has multiple loans in multiple non-default statuses, then, as stated in Section 3.0 under the Assumptions listed under the Pricing Tables, “Borrowers in multiple statuses shall be billed once, in the lowest performing deliverable status. The lowest performing deliverable status is defined as the lowest unit priced deliverable.” |
| 3. |
| Para 1.2, 3rd para indicates the possibility of servicing the additional 2.4 Million Borrowers from the school portfolio. The increase in scope is from 58K borrowers to 2.45 Million borrowers; 49 times. What time frame is envisioned for this transition? When will it happen? |
| If this were to occur, and there is no guarantee that it will occur, then the time frame for completing this transition will be identified at that time. The Government is using the scenario identified in Section 3.0 (3), in order to assess each offerors proposed solution based upon common factors. |
| 4. |
| The data is owned by the Department of Education. Where does the data reside? Government datacenter? Can the contractor continue to use the current datacenter facility? And if so, is there a cost associated with it? |
| The loan data resides at the current service provider’s facility. That servicing system and facility will no longer be available for use after the transition of the existing portfolio. FSA is looking for a service provider who will host and manage the Government’s data. |
| 5. |
| Can the lack of experience by a prime be compensated by a strong teaming arrangement with qualified and experience partners? |
| Yes. |
| 6. |
| Section 3.0 Contents of Offer – This is the section we would need to provide responses to, correct? Can we copy this section into a response template we have in MS Word? |
| Section 4.0 provides the directions for responding to this solicitation. |
| 7. |
| In addition to the table of contents and single title page, can we include a cover letter? Is so, would that count towards the 10 page limitation? |
| A cover letter not exceeding two (2)-pages may be included and will not count towards the ten (10)-page limitation. |
| 8. |
| Under Section 3.0 item #1 which requests reference info, it states ‘Copies of sources used as validation for proposed experience should be provided to the Government.’ Can you describe what ‘sources’ are required? |
| That note has been removed from the solicitation. |
| 9. |
| Section 3.0, Assumptions, item d. indicates that in Phase II additional loan servicing life-cycle pricing will be requested such as Borrowers In-School Status, or Borrowers in Deferment or Forbearance. However Tables 1 and 2 for Tier unit pricing already includes these status categories. Should we still provide unit pricing for these statuses or do we wait until Phase II, if we have the opportunity to move onto the second phase? |
| Yes, all cells in both Table 1 and Table 2’s unit pricing should be completed. |
| 10. |
| Is this a new requirement or is there a previous contractor that fulfilled the same or similar requirements. If yes, could you please provide the contractor's name and contract ID |
| Perkins loans are currently serviced under the Common Services for Borrowers agreement with Xerox (formerly ACS) under Contract Number ED-04-CO-0004. |
| 11. |
| The information in the link provided in 1.4.1 cannot be acquired. Can you confirm the URL? |
| The link provided in 1.4.1 has been removed from the solicitation and replaced with Appendix B - High-Level Requirements. See amended Phase 1 solicitation. |
| 12. |
| The scope is basically for loan servicing and management. It does not include approving/ disapproving, calculating risk, trading, etc. None of the activities required in this scope are activities that are per-se regulated or under the oversight of the Federal Reserve. Why is the solicitation calling for an existing lender only? Are there requirements in the part 2 that would require a financial institution to have the loan? |
| Based upon the market research conducted, and in order to minimize the Government’s risk exposure, the Government is seeking a qualified vendor with experience in providing Perkins loan servicing. |
| 13. |
| If FSA provided $157 billion dollars in new aid alone to 15 million new college students, but this contract will only manage basically up to 2.5 Million, who manages the other 57 million borrowers? Sallie Mae? And who or how do you decide which loans go into this portfolio vs. the other 57 million that do not? Which criteria is used. |
| There are numerous loan programs that provide funds to borrowers by FSA (e.g., Direct Loan, Perkins, etc.). This solicitation is for the servicing and hosting of the Federally Held non-defaulted Perkins loan portfolio. |
Phase I – Perkins Loan Servicing Q&A – 6/15/2012