R -- Sole Source Presolicitation Notice for Professional Services

It is the intent of the National Library of Medicine (NLM), National Institutes of Health (NIH), to procure professional services on a sole source basis under the authority of FAR 6.302 from Diverse Technologies Corporation (DTC). The purpose of this procurement is to acquire financial, auditing, marketing, outreach and policy development support to the NIH Division of Loan Repayment/NIH Intramural Loan Repayment Program.Diverse Technologies Corporation has specialized programmatic knowledge and experience to provide the analytical/data reporting support required. The NIH Intramural Loan Repayment Program is a complex program. Diverse Technologies Corporation is familiar with the nature of the work and has developed techniques for accomplishing tasks in an efficient and cost effective manner. Having Diverse Technologies Corporation provide these services allows for continuity of the activities without loss of productivity. The period of performance shall be 12 months starting on or about July 27, 2006. Building on programmatic knowledge and experience, the contractor shall accomplish the following tasks: Provide policy development and marketing services to the Loan Repayment Plan (LRP). a) Develop and produce the Annual Report for the DLR. This includes obtaining and proofing data, formatting and design of the report; b) Assist the Director of DLR and the Director of Operations with policy related issues and policy development. This may include developing regulations, DLR policy statements, decision memoranda, answering data calls, and providing responses to ad-hoc requests for program data; c) Develop presentations for the DLR using knowledge of program and programmatic data; d) Contribute to the development of LRP responses to GPRA, STEM, CFDA, CACR, Budget, and other NIH, HHS, OMB, or Congressional mandates and/or inquiries; e) Prepares program fact sheets, and other marketing material for the LRP for various audiences and for various needs; f) Produce an information bulletin for the DLR; g) Assist with the evaluation contract to study the effectiveness of the NIH Extramural Loan Repayment Programs'making sure that delivery schedules are met and deliverables are distributed in a timely fashion; h) Provide general financial analysis, process quarterly payments, assist with quarterly service verifications, and reconciliation of the 1099 data; i) Provide a resource to share information program materials and discussions regarding the LRP's. j) Responsible for clearance of DLR forms through NIH and OMB; k) Provide backup to the LRP help desk. Provide basic financial services to the LRP. a) Set-up quarterly payments on the NIH Administrative Database (ADB). Using the LRP financial Management Information System (MIS) and the ADB, payments are scheduled on a quarterly basis; b) Resolve misapplied payments. These are payments that were not sent to the proper lender or were not applied to the proper account. The LRP is responsible for working with the lender and the participant to determine why the payment was not received and to correct all deficiencies-- through credit back to the NIH, Office of Financial Management if necessary; c) Handle Loan Consolidations. When participants consolidate their loans, the LRP requires the participant to submit supporting documentation such as the consolidation disclosure statement to ensure that loans not covered by the LRP are not added. The MIS and the ADB will be updated accordingly to reflect the changes in the repayment schedule due to the consolidation; d) Monitor and follow-up on payments that are not verified for over 90-days. This process requires documentation of payment to be submitted to the LRP by the payee. If not received, then payment verification can become stale and must be pursued by contacting the participant; and e) Review documents submitted during the annual application cycle to establish that an individual is eligible for the program and has the proper financial documentation to support their loan debt. Promissory notes and account statements will be reviewed, tallied, and selected data entered into the LRP MIS database. Provide auditing support and business process consultation. a) Advise management on financial matters (budgeting for additional tax reimb, obligation control, 1099 reconciliation, Form 1099-G issuance) b) Advise management on operational procedures (PV, SV, financial vetting, segregation of duties, tracking of open payment issues, scenarios causing 1099 difference) c) Advise management on administrative and program execution policies (program eligibility, terminations, breach of contract, BOC penalties, SV, LWOP, COI) d) Oversee the DLR internal audit process (contract pre-close, termination, closeout, final closeout; and tax reimbursement request) e) Respond to technical tax reimbursement request inquiries and advises others preparing responses to general and compliance requests f) Participate with system design (accounting modules, SV application, MIS enhancements) g) Prepare or oversees preparation of procedure manuals or guidelines (tax reimb requests, contract audits, termination audits and LWOP workflow) h) Track and follows-up on audit-determined collectible amounts, and coordinate the action taken following our collection of a receivable amount i) Prepare decision memos to NIH management for obtaining approval of recommended LRP-related policies or procedures j) Respond to participant inquiries regarding fluctuation of their repayable debt and decrease in amount of final quarterly payment NLM has determined that DTC is uniquely qualified to provide the above services. DTC has highly specialized and relevant expertise. Having DTC provide the services outline above allows for continuity of the activities without loss of productivity. A company other than DTC would require LRP management to spend time orienting and training staff. Consequently, fewer services could be provided in the same amount of time and the LRP would operate less efficiently and effectively. This is not a Request for Quotations (RFQ), nor is a RFQ available.