FDIC Questions and Answers for Independent Investigations RFP.pdf

Questions and Answers for FDIC Independent Investigations Solicitation

FDIC-LEGAL-2024-003

# Vendor Questions FDIC Answers (These answers have the same force and effect as a solicitation amendment)

[Our non-law-firm company] is a licensed private investigations firm. Will the FDIC accept / consider proposals from organizations that are not law firms but have legal representatives on staff?

• Thank you for your interest in supporting the FDIC.

• For this particular announcement, non-law-firm vendors will not be considered. The requirement is for law firms.

Would FDIC be open to a week-long extension of the deadline for this RFP response? The FDIC is not granting an extension for proposals.

Section II.7. of the RFP request types of work performed, the approximate time periods for that work, and the approximate cost billed to the FDIC for that work. How long should the “lookback” period be, especially when calculated amounts bill to the FDIC.

• For Section II.7 of the RFP (Prior RFP Work) the FDIC is primarily interested in the types and time periods of work performed by the FDIC and whether the work was performed for or in conjunction with FDIC senior executives.

• Use January 1, 2019 to present (5 years) as the lookback period when calculating fees collected from the FDIC for RFP Section II.7. The described prior FDIC work experience for Section 7 may extend farther back than that, at your election. For example, if you handled employment law matters for FDIC in 2018, the FDIC would still like to hear about that, even if those fees don’t get captured in the 5-year lookback.

• As a reminder, Section II.7. is specially for prior FDIC work, of any type. The firm’s general investigative experience, wherever obtained, would be described in Section II.2.

(Experience) of the proposal and should have a 10-year look back period.

For our proposed staff and their resumes, can biographies be included in an appendix and not be counted in the page limit?

Yes, and see below:

• All investigative experience and experience with US Government clients the proposing firm wishes to be considered by the FDIC should be included and described within the 6 pages of the proposal.

• Firms are also permitted (but not required to) provide additional background biographical information about proposed personnel, either as hyperlinks to the firm’s website or as an appendix of biographies.

o If such additional biographical information is provided, hyperlinked bios are preferred.

o If biographical information is provided as a PDF appendix, the appendix would not count against the 6-page proposal limit. If individual bios are provided in an PDF appendix (instead of hyperlinks to firm’s webpage) should be limited to no more than 1 page each.

Could you clarify the preferred approach for providing biographical information on our attorney team? May we include links to their biographies in a matrix or submit an attachment with full CVs? Alternatively, does the FDIC prefer all biographical details to be within the six-page response limit?

• See above answer to Question 4, above.

To match the Scope of Services, would you like us to include an estimate to prepare a comprehensive report of investigation? The recommendation memoranda?

• The Sample Budget required by RFP Section II.8 should include preparation of a final report of investigation (ROI) and recommendation memoranda. For estimating purposes, assume the ROI substantiates that misconduct did occur and is 10 pages in length, not including exhibits. Assume the recommendation memorandum is 3 pages.

Under Required Information, the RFP indicates that the response should not exceed six pages, excluding the attachment referenced in item 11. Could you please confirm if this is actually referring to item 10, Sample Work Product?

• Correct. The Sample Work Product (item II.10 of the RFP) is what is excluded from the page limit.

• Section II should read: “Please address the items listed below in the order shown as specifically and succinctly as possible (but in no case, to exceed six pages (excluding the attachment referenced in number 10)…”

Will there be a specific OPC designated contact and OEEO designated contact, respectively, for outside legal counsel hired for this project? Would that contact be responsible for facilitating the gathering and collection of FDIC documents or data that outside counsel deem necessary for the investigation? If not, can you please provide information pertaining to the process for collecting relevant data and contact information?

The FDIC anticipates that both the OPC and the OEEO will have designated contacts available to outside counsel. The FDIC also anticipates providing assistance or guidance on the collection of FDIC documents and data. FDIC anticipates documents and data will be provided to the selected firm via a workspace in Relativity, and assign a Project Manager to work with counsel.

Will there be an established procedure for outside legal counsel to report any noncompliance/nonfeasance/non-responsiveness or lack of cooperation on behalf of a subject, witness or target during our investigation, if we feel necessary, and to whom would that reporting be, e.g., to the respective head of OPC or OEEO, the transformation monitor, independent third-party advisor, FDIC board of directors?

Depending on the type of matter referred (e.g., OPC or OEEO), the FDIC anticipates that such reporting will be made to staff in the respective office. The specifics of such reporting are not required to prepare a competitive proposal.

10 We have experience representing the FDIC, but we have to our knowledge never had as a client any individual who is an officer or employee of FDIC, and we do not believe any lawyers at our firm who have handled prior matters for FDIC would be involved (or would need to be involved) in this effort—do you have any clarifying details on what would constitute a conflict of interest in this context?

Prior representation of the FDIC on unrelated matters, by itself, is not anticipated to be a conflict. That said, firms should disclose actual or potential conflicts as required by Section II.5 of the RFP. The FDIC will address firm-disclosed or FDIC-identified conflicts on a case by base basis.