99--NOTICE REGARDING FEDCONNECT

The Department of the Interior (The Department) will be implementing the Financial and Business Management System (FBMS) during fiscal years 2008 through 2012. FBMS will be used by eight Department Bureaus and the DOI National Business Center. DOI Bureaus include the Bureau of Land Management, Bureau of Reclamation. Bureau of Indian Affairs, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Minerals Management Service, National Park Service, Office of Surface Mining and Reclamation, and U.S. Geological Survey. Bureaus will be scheduled to implement FBMS throughout the lifecycle of the project. As a result, the Department will begin using FedConnect, which is hosted by Compusearch, as the communications portal for its trading partners beginning in mid April 2008. Therefore, in order to do business with the Department, all current and potential trading partners must be registered with Compusearch's FedConnect portal. Notices and solicitations, required by the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR), will continue to be sent to FedBizOpps (FBO). A link will be established from FBO with additional information available to interested entities on Compusearch's FedConnect portal. The FedConnect portal will be used throughout the lifecycle of the Department's acquisition from the presolicitation/planning phase to instrument close-out. The Department's FBMS will communicate with external entities via FedConnect on all matters related to the acquisition. We are advising current and potential Department trading partners to register with FedConnect at your earliest convenience at https://www.fedconnect.net/FedConnect/ . Please note FedConnect is used by multiple federal agencies and therefore, assistance with FedConnect will be provided by Compusearch, not the Department of the Interior. Registration information is provided on the FedConnect web site. In addition, we are requiring that all trading partners that wish to do business with the Department of Interior register with the Central Contractor Registration System (CCR) at http://www.ccr.gov/ to facilitate registration on FedConnect. The system functionality of FedConnect requires that all trading partners be registered with the CCR, before registering with FedConnect.