Services in support of the National Flood Insurance Program

THIS SOURCES SOUGHT NOTICE IS FOR MARKET RESEARCH ONLY TO DETERMINE IF SMALL BUSINESSES ARE CAPABLE OF PERFORMING THE REQUIREMENT DESCRIBED IN THIS ANNOUNCEMENT. THIS IS NOT A REQUEST FOR PROPOSAL. The Department of Homeland Security, Federal Emergency Management Agency, Mitigation Directorate, requires contracted insurance services in support of the National Flood Insurance Program's Direct Servicing Agent. The NAICS code for these services is 524292- Third Party Administration of Insurance and Pension Fund. The Small Business Size Standard is $7 million average receipts per year over the last three years. The National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) was created by Congress 1968 and is administered by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), specifically the Mitigation Directorate. The purpose of the procurement is the selection of the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) Direct Servicing Agent (DSA) for those policies of insurance written directly by the Government. The DSA shall have responsibility for the management, operation, maintenance and quality assurance for required activities and systems. The NFIP provides flood insurance protection for property owners in return for local government commitment to sound flood plain management and related flood disaster mitigation efforts. The duties of FEMA, specifically the Mitigation Directorate, includes identifying communities with - special flood hazard areas, issuing maps for those areas, and helping communities meet flood plain management requirements. The regulations governing the National Flood Insurance Program are set forth in Title 44 of the Code of Federal Regulations, Chapter 1, Subchapter B, commencing at part 59. Since 1983, the Write Your Own (WYO) Program has become the primary vehicle for the delivery and service of flood insurance with participating companies writing over 94% of NFIP policies in their own names. The Government bears the underwriting risk for these policies as well as for the remaining policies for which the Government is the named insurer, i.e., the - Direct business. FEMA requires a Direct Servicing Agent to issue and service flood insurance policies, collect premiums, adjust and settle claims and, to disseminate information on insurance aspects of the Program to the public, lenders and agents. The Direct Servicing Agent provides day-to-day servicing of policies of flood insurance issued directly by FEMA pursuant to the NFIP. Procurement Objectives include: (1) Maintain, in an uninterrupted manner and to program and contract standards, the day-to-day servicing of directly written standard flood insurance policies, Severe Repetitive Loss (SRL) and Group [National] Flood Insurance Program (GFIP) Policies including underwriting, claims examination and payment, financial accounting, and reporting. (2) Help coordinate operations of the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) servicing facility with Bureau and Statistical Agent (BSA) contractor, the NFIP Information Technology contractor and other insurance and government hazard mitigation and disaster response activities. (3) Operate as fiduciary agent for premium and other NFIP funds collection, and meet Government deposit and other accounting requirements as well as other applicable requirements (such as those contained in the Plan to Maintain Financial Control for Business Written under the Write-Your-Own Program), of the flood insurance program. (4) Meet regular information and reporting requirements including the statistical and other requirements contained in the WYO Transaction Record Reporting and Processing (TRRP) Plan. (5) Provide information management systems that encompass cash management, policy administration, claims management, performance management reporting, and financial and statistical reporting. Based upon evaluation of responses received by the closing date of this announcement, the government reserves the right to set-aside any and all procurements that may result hereunder for small or minority-owned businesses; or to open the follow-on solicitation to full and open competition if no small businesses are deemed capable of performing the required services. Minimum capabilities must include documented evidence of experience and expertise in all of the following areas: (1) Demonstrated experience in all aspects of property and casualty insurance services and program management, including but not limited to: (a) Rating and underwriting property and casualty risks; (b) Handling insurance premiums and all other related accounting functions, including monthly reporting tasks (c) Preparing and responding to performance audits and financial audits (c) Managing a national call center (d) Processing insurance policies from application to policy issuance/mailing. (e) Expertise in the area of property and casualty claims adjustment; examination; and re-inspection; (f) Expertise in reviewing and developing appropriate responses to claims and underwriting inquiries; (2) Staff of key personnel with experience in property and casualty underwriting and claims. (3) Demonstrated capacity to accomplish the effort in the required time and ability to direct, manage, and control the entire project within cost and schedule. (4) Past Performance on contracts with government agencies and private industry in terms of: (a) Cost control; (b) Quality of work; (c) Compliance with performance schedule. (d) Submittals must include references names, affiliations, and phone numbers. (5) Company experience and key personnel demonstrating the capability to maintain adequate product quality control of contract of comparable size. (6) Demonstrated ability to deliver timely and effective guidance and technical assistance. At a minimum, information furnished should include: (1) The number of professional claims, underwriting, training, accounting, customer service and other appropriate personnel; (2) Company experience related to the proposed project; (3) A description of general and special facilities; (4) A current financial statement, and (5) Other literature that demonstrates the minimum capabilities listed above. Capability Statements shall be submitted by small businesses with these capabilities who are interested in performing the proposed effort. Capability Statement is limited to 15 pages or less; please do not include marketing materials. Responses should be single spaced and single sided, using Times New Roman, 12-point font, and should not include attachments or appendices. Please list company points of contact including e-mail, regular mail address, and telephone number(s). Please identify whether your business is a small business, small disadvantaged business, (8a) concern, woman-owned business, veteran-owned small business, service-disabled veteran-owned small business or HUB Zone small business. If you send your Capability Statement via e-mail, DO NOT use .zip or other compressed file formats. Preferred file formats include .doc, .txt, and .pdf. Electronic files can be no larger than 4mb. E-mail submissions should be submitted to ronnie.ebron@dhs.gov . The subject line of your e-mail should read: - NFIP DSA Sources Sought Notice. If you are submitting information by mail, messenger or FedEx, UPS, etc, please submit three copies and one CD of your materials to the following address: Ronnie Ebron Department of Homeland Security Federal Emergency Management Agency Acquisition Operations Branch Mitigation Section 500 C St., S.W., PP 5th floor Washington, D.C. 20472 Phone 202-646-3578 Capability Statements must be received no later than 3:00 PM Eastern Time on 11/12/2008. The point of contact for this action is Ronnie Ebron who may be contacted at Ronnie.Ebron@dhs.gov or (202)646-4150. The Small Business Administration may be used to verify business size. Note: This announcement is a Sources Sought Notice only and does not obligate FEMA in any way. This is NOT a request for proposal and FEMA will NOT pay for any information submitted or for and expenses associated with providing information. Any information submitted by respondents to this Sources Sought Notice is strictly voluntary. Any proprietary material submitted must be marked as such.