Results Verification System

The US Department of Interior, through its Franchise Fund activity, Acquisition Services Directorate (AQD), intends to award a contract to the University of Minnesota’s Center for Farm Financial Management (CFFM), on behalf of the US Department of Agriculture, Risk Management Agency (RMA) . This award is intended to be done on a non-competitive basis for the purpose of providing and maintaining the Results Verification System (RVS). The action is made in accordance with FAR 13.106-1(b)(1) " Soliciting from a single source ." The Risk Management Agency (RMA) is in need of a reporting system to record funding for crop insurance education and risk management training to U.S. producers. To facilitate public accountability and transparency as required by the Transparency Act, the results of all funded projects must allow the public to find projects by location, year, audience, and topics addressed. RMA is currently using a portion the Results Verification System (which was created by the University of Minnesota, Center for Farm Management (CFFM) for the National Institute for Food and Agriculture, USDA, for use by their university extension agents nationwide) in order to comply with the requirements of the Transparency Act. CFFM customized the RVS to meet RMA needs which included but it is not limited to : (1) transparency of funded project through publication of the project’s final report on the National Ag Library website; (2) access to the system by partners to report materials created, meetings held, producer attendance, work completed by the partner including performance based results; and (3) access to the system by designated RMA employees to complete required administrative functions as well as monitor the performance of the work done . RMA now requires additional customization of RVS to collect demographic data and generate specific analytical reports required by the Department. CFFM can provide the development and implementation of these updates as well as regular maintenance of the system. RMA uses the RVS to record, track and publish the results of education projects funded by RMA . These projects are competitive cooperative agreements that require awarded partners to develop materials and conduct crop insurance education and risk management training to producers. RVS provides opportunities for collaboration, sharing of educational materials and expansion of innovative programs to other areas of the country and to other audiences including socially disadvantaged audiences who often do not have access to these types educational materials and well-documented delivery methods that are provided by this system. The system allows public access to the results of projects that will allow search and summary of reports capabilities. Once a project is funded by award, the partner is required to set up an account and enter their proposed results, plan of work (tasks to be accomplished) project summary, and targeted audiences before the first quarterly report is due. For each quarterly report, partners must report actual results, tasks completed, and progress notes. Partners must upload promotional and educational materials associated with the project prior to use. RMA reviews and approves the uploaded material for use with the public. In addition, the partner may submit stories and other related information from the project so RMA’s review. RMA may publish this information on its website as a “success story”. RVS provides RMA staff the capability to perform a variety of administrative functions including but not limited to an online review of project quarterly and final reports including the number of participants and meetings by quarter and annually, progress notes, educational materials, financial reports as well as other partner communications with RMA staff,. RVS allows RMA staff to see when the reports were submitted, the last time partners used the reporting system, and which reports are overdue. All reports, including quarterly and final reports, are archived and available electronically to RMA. Training on the use of the system is be provided to project partners and designated RMA staff. CFFM has a unique set of skills to accomplish this task, as they were the Developers of RVS. CFFM initiated the reporting requirements, identified demographic categories for observations, and conducted research on user needs. As the developer of the RVS, CFFM owns all of the data collected as it is necessary for the continued implementation, upgrades, and maintenance of this program. In addition the CFFM holds the propriety rights to the methodology, icons and software of the RVS , as it was originally developed for University of Minnesota’s Extension Risk Management Education . Upgrades were performed to the Extension reporting system for use by USDA's Risk Management Agency under a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU). The last MOU was entered into on September 24, 2011 and utilized through September 24, 2012. It would require significant resources for another contractor to attempt to achieve the required results in an acceptable timeframe to recreate an already existing system. In addition it would be extremely cost prohibitive to have to have another contractor do the initial research that is the cornerstone for this follow on work. THIS NOTICE IS FOR INFORMATIONAL PURPOSES ONLY. THIS IS NOT A REQUEST FOR COMPETITIVE PROPOSALS. THE GOVERNMENT INTENDS TO AWARD THIS REQUIREMENT NONCOMPETITIVELY IAW FAR 13.106-1(b)(1). The relevant NAICS Code is 611310, and the relevant PSC is U099. The anticipated award date of the contract is 11/30/2012. A vendor must be registered at http://www.sam.gov to be awarded the contract. Contractors who believe they are capable of meeting the performance requirements should contact the Contracting Officer by electronic mail at [email protected] by 3 PM (ET), 23 October 2012.