R -- Public Announcement of A-76 Performance Decision - Payment Processing Services

In accordance with OMB Circular A-76 (Revised May 29, 2003), the U.S. Department of Education (ED) announces a performance decision for the Standard Competition ED-03-R-0015 conducted for Payment Processing Services. The Most Efficient Organization (MEO) submitted by the Agency has been selected as the Service Provider to perform the work because it was deemed to offer the solution most advantageous to the Government. The total contract price is not to exceed $10,262,594.00, inclusive of any incentive payments that may be earned by the MEO. The major functional area included in the work is ED's accounts payable activities, including the processing of administrative payment requests for contracts, purchase cards, travel, and Inter-partnering Agency Collections (IPAC) payments. ED solicited offers for a service provider to make ED payments on-time and to accurately match transactions, to ensure accountability/auditability of payment activity, to ensure system performance meets agreed-upon processing needs, to verify accuracy of charges and receipt of goods or services, to provide timely reconciliations, to provide timely and quality management reports, to provide timely receipt of payment, to ensure accurate amount of payment, to accurately create batch payment files, and to manage Treasury confirmations of payment to ED. The official end date of the Standard Competition is June 4, 2004. Solicitation ED-03-R-0015 is, therefore, cancelled.