JPMC FY27-31 Collection Services

The Illinois Department of Revenue, in cooperation with the Chief Procurement Officer for General Services, is soliciting proposals to establish Joint Purchase Master Contracts for collection services covering fiscal years 2027 through 2031. The procurement seeks to award up to four contracts for First Placements (accounts never previously outsourced) and up to two contracts for Second Placements/Litigation (previously placed accounts) to collect outstanding state debt owed to the Department of Revenue and other governmental units. Services encompass debt collection activities including asset investigation, skip tracing, debtor negotiation, and litigation services for Individual Income Tax, Business Taxes, and other state agency debt, with historical annual volumes of approximately 240,000 First Placement cases totaling $429 million and 47,000 Second Placement cases totaling $171 million. Successful vendors must maintain a brick-and-mortar office within Illinois with debt collectors and administrative staff performing all collection activities from Illinois addresses, maintain collection agency registration certificates, and comply with IRS Publication 1075 safeguarding requirements for federal tax information. Vendors will be compensated on a contingency fee percentage basis with no separate expenses allowed, netting their fees from gross collections recovered. The evaluation criteria include technical capability (600 points), commitment to diversity (120 points), and pricing (144 points), with a minimum combined score of 540 points required for price evaluation consideration. A non-mandatory Pre-Submission Conference is scheduled for January 14, 2026, at 1:00 p.m. (CDT); questions must be submitted by January 21, 2026, with responses due January 28, 2026; and proposals are due February 11, 2026, at 10:00 a.m. (CDT) via BidBuy, with the contract term commencing July 1, 2026, and concluding June 30, 2031.

This procurement includes a 2% Business Enterprise Program utilization goal for subcontracting with minority, women, and disability-owned businesses, with vendors required to either meet the goal through identified certified subcontractors or submit Good Faith Effort documentation requesting a waiver or reduction. The Commitment to Diversity evaluation component requires vendors to document diversity spending, staff diversity demographics, prior-year contracts with women and minority-owned businesses, and DEI initiatives, with maximum points of 120 available for this category. Vendors must complete mandatory compliance documentation including the IPG Active Registered Vendor Disclosure, Vendor Disclosure forms, Financial Disclosure and Conflicts of Interest forms, and BEP Utilization Plans with signed commitment agreements for any identified subcontractors. The current contract structure operates under five first placement contracts and two second placement contracts expiring June 30, 2026; historical liquidation rates for the past five fiscal years average 12.79% for first placement Individual Income Tax, 4.3% for first placement Business Taxes, 7.22% for second placement Individual Income Tax, and 1.08% for second placement Business Taxes. Accounts are distributed among awarded vendors through a blind round-robin system with equal initial distribution, though the top-performing vendor receives double volume the following month while the lowest performer may be removed from distribution. In Fiscal Year 2025, four vendors collectively received $9.5 million in fees, though the Department does not disclose current vendor fee percentages, incumbent vendor names, or satisfaction levels with existing contractors.