Notice of Intent to Award Sole Source Contract - CCH Accounting Research Manager Subscription

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), part of the Department of the Treasury, has published a Special Notice announcing its intent to award a sole source contract to CCH Incorporated for an Accounting Research Manager subscription. The contract is valued as a firm fixed price agreement and will be awarded under FAR 13.5 Simplified Acquisition procedures for commercial items, justified by the agency's determination that only one responsible source exists to meet their requirements. The OCC has conducted market research and concluded that CCH Incorporated is the exclusive provider of the required accounting research capabilities. The subscription service provides access to proprietary content including US and International Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) organized as "Accounting Standards" with summaries, rules, and analysis. CCH Incorporated holds the copyright on the interpretations contained within the Accounting Research Manager platform. The proposed contract period spans from October 1, 2025, through September 30, 2026, with four additional option periods available.

The purpose of this Special Notice is to provide advance notification of the sole source award while allowing other potential contractors an opportunity to demonstrate their capability to provide equivalent services. Interested parties must submit written responses by June 26, 2025, to Mark Tewell at mark.tewell@occ.treas.gov, with telephone responses explicitly prohibited. Contractors seeking to challenge the sole source determination must provide clear and convincing evidence that they can deliver the same specialized accounting research services, including the exclusive topical organization of GAAP standards that CCH provides. The OCC will only consider responses for the purpose of determining whether to conduct a competitive procurement instead of the planned sole source award. Any contractor response must demonstrate the ability to provide the specific Accounting Research Manager capabilities, including the 10K Lookup and Internal Controls Library components that are integral to the subscription service. The agency retains sole discretion in determining whether received responses warrant abandoning the sole source approach in favor of competitive bidding.