SOLICITATION NOTICE
R -- Calculation and Mailing of Regulatory Fee Assessment Notification Postcards
- Notice Date
- 12/10/2003
- Notice Type
- Solicitation Notice
- Contracting Office
- Federal Communications Commission, Office of the Managing Director, Contracts and Purchasing Center, 445 12th Street, SW, Washington, DC, 20554
- ZIP Code
- 20554
- Solicitation Number
- SOL04000002
- Response Due
- 1/27/2004
- Point of Contact
- Lawrence Williams, Contracting Officer, Phone 202-418-0980, Fax 202-418-0237,
- E-Mail Address
-
lawillia@fcc.gov
- Description
- Statement of Work Title: Calculation and Mailing of Regulatory Fee Assessment Notification Postcards Location: Office of Managing Director, Federal Communications Commission Project Goal: To improve the effectiveness of the FCC’s Regulatory Fee program and increase the program’s collection process by: • Assessing the appropriate regulatory fee that is due of all U.S.-licensed, commercial entities in the following fee categories: AM and FM Radio Stations, AM and FM Construction Permits, FM Translators/Boosters, VHF and UHF Television Stations, VHF and UHF Television Construction Permits, Satellite Television Stations, Satellite Television Construction Permits, Low Power Television (LPTV) Stations, and LPTV Translators/Boosters. • Mailing postcards, on a facility ID basis, to the entities listed above in order to provide notification of the assessed fee amounts that are due for each facility ID. • Linking, to the extent possible, entities to their respective Federal Registration Number(s) (FRN) in order to ensure each entity’s fee sufficiency across multiple fee categories and for any given fiscal year. • Analyzing end-of-year regulatory fee payment data for fee sufficiency and sending collections letters to fee deficient entities in an expedient manner. Project Summary: Section 9(a) of the Communications Act of 1934, as amended, authorizes the Commission to collect annual regulatory fees to recover the annual costs of its enforcement, policy and rulemaking, user information, and international activities. The Commission’s Schedule of Fees sets forth annual regulatory fees for specific categories of regulatees in the Media, Cable Television, Wireline, Wireless, and International Services. In carrying out the Commission’s annual regulatory fee notification and collection activities, we seek the assistance of a Contractor who can (1) compile a comprehensive spreadsheet of the above Media Services entities on a facility ID basis, including addresses, population counts and other data attributes necessary for calculating regulatory fees; (2) prepare and mail assessment notification postcards to all entities and/or their respective legal representatives; and (3) compile a fee payment report from which to generate collections letters by comparing end-of-year regulatory fee payment data to the comprehensive spreadsheet of Media Services entities. The Commission will use its existing CORES database to establish all possible links between the entities and their respective FRNs. The Contractor will then compare its independent database to the CORES data and data gleaned from the Media Bureau’s Consolidated Database System (CDBS) in order to assure that the addresses used for the postcard mailings are based on the best possible data. The compilation of CORES data and the contractor’s data will then enable the Commission to ensure the above entities’ fee sufficiency across multiple fee categories for any given fiscal year, and to readily identify non-payments and other fee deficiency issues. Scope of Work: Deliverables for this project will include three major reports to the Commission and one batch of postcards. Deliverables may also include such interim reports to the Commission and samples as are appropriate to the progress of the project. The first report delivered will be a Management Summary Report that indicates revenue by fee code and classification of AM/FM/TV stations. The second report will be a Detailed Report (a.k.a. a comprehensive spreadsheet) of records on a facility ID basis. Each record, at a minimum, will have a field for facility ID, call sign, licensee’s FRN and/or additional FRNs associated with the facility ID, licensee name and address, calculated fee, payment type code, and sufficient information to determine the basis of the calculation. The last report will be a Payment Report derived from CORES/RAMIS payment data. It will indicate, on a facility ID basis, FY 2004 regulatory fee payments received for each facility ID, payment type codes and the FRN associated with the payment. The reports will be provided to the Commission electronically in the form of Microsoft Excel spreadsheets. The postcards will be printed by the contractor or a subcontractor to the contractor. The postcards will be mailed to Media Services entities. The postcards will be mailed by the contractor. Depending upon the success and progress of this project with media services entities, the COTR may broaden the scope of this contract by activating options to create spreadsheet reports and to mail assessment notification postcards to additional regulatory fee service categories. However, the COTR and the Contractor first must mutually agree to exercise any additional options. No options to this contract can be activated in lieu of, at the expense of, or as a substitute to, the fundamental contract deliverables; i.e. spreadsheet reports and assessment notification postcards for media services entities. See also Optional Deliverables section. Deliverables: The following deliverables are scheduled for 2004. However, this is a five-year multi-year contract that can be extended in one-year increments as far as September 30, 2008 at the mutual consent of both parties. If this contract is extended into Contract Years 2-5, the schedule of deliverables shall repeat itself each time of year for the subsequent Contract Year in question. No specific calendar date is attached to Deliverable 1 in Contract Year 1. As such, the scheduled calendar date for Deliverable 1 in Contract Years 2-5 shall be deemed February 1 of each subsequent Contract Year. Deliverable 1 – No later than three weeks after the award of contract, the contractor will provide the Commission’s Performance Evaluation and Records Management Office (PERM) staff with the following: (1) an evaluation of the quality of fit between CORES, CDBS and contractor data; (2) an initial Management Summary Report of revenue by fee code; and (3) an estimate of the number of postcards that will be generated for the mailings. The initial Management Summary Report will be provided either electronically or in hard-copy. The Management Summary Report will be based on the regulatory fee structure of the prior year (FY 2003), and will indicate revenue by fee code and classification of AM/FM/TV stations. Deliverable 2 – By May 1, 2004, the contractor will provide to PERM a final Management Summary Report, based on the FY 2003 regulatory fee structure. This report will indicate revenue by fee code and classification of AM/FM/TV stations. The contractor will provide the final Management Summary Report electronically in the format of Microsoft Excel spreadsheets. Deliverable 3 – By May 10, 2004, the contractor will provide to PERM staff a draft design of the initial version of the assessment notification postcards, as well as a sample of the paper stock on which they will be printed. PERM staff will approve or edit the draft design in one or more cycles of information exchange with the contractor until PERM gives its commitment for the final look and content of the postcards by June 1, 2004. Deliverable 4 – By June 8, 2004, the contractor will provide PERM staff with a web address that permits access to the contractor’s electronic database of AM/FM/TV entities on the basis of facility identification number. From this web address, PERM staff will be able to search all non-proprietary records for each facility and will be able to rewrite information such as facility address, facility fee-exempt status and contact information. Web access to the database will be provided to no fewer than four PERM employees. The web access will be provided continuously until September 30, 2003 at 11:59 p.m. By June 15, 2004, the contractor will make the web address available and functional for media services entities to review their facility information and make changes to information such as facility address, facility fee-exempt status and contact information. Deliverable 5 – By June 15, 2004, the contractor will have the postcards printed and ready to mail. The contractor will mail the postcards. The exact date of the mailing will be determined by PERM, but will be no earlier than June 15, 2004. Regardless of format, the postcards are to contain the following information: Facility ID, Call Sign, Contact Address, Fee Type, Fee Amount, Market Ranking (TV) or Class of Station (AM/FM), Population Served (AM/FM), and FRN associated with the Facility ID. Deliverable 6 – From June through September 2004, the contractor will address, without PERM’s assistance or participation, up to 100 fee or station classification inquiries from AM/FM radio stations and up to 50 fee or station classification inquiries from VHF/UHF television stations. Regulatory fee amounts for media services are driven by station classification; therefore, we anticipate that a number of entities will question or seek clarification of the criteria that was used to classify their radio or television stations. The Commission will pay the contractor $50.00 per inquiry to address inquiries from AM/FM stations that exceed 100 and to address inquiries from VHF/UHF stations that exceed 50. Prior to paying the contractor to address inquiries that exceed either category, the contractor will first provide the Commission with a log that shows at a minimum the company name, contact person and telephone number for each inquiry, the time of call, and a brief description of the nature of the inquiry. Deliverable 7 – By October 10, 2004, the contractor will provide to PERM a Detailed Report of Media Services entities. This detailed report is actually the comprehensive spreadsheet of media services licenses. The contractor will generate it by integrating its own data with the Commission’s data. The resulting deliverable will then be a comprehensive spreadsheet of the most accurate and current information available concerning media services licensees. The Detailed Report will be a spreadsheet of records listed by facility ID. At a minimum, each records shall contain the following data fields: call sign, licensee’s FRN and/or additional FRNs associated with the facility ID, licensee name and address, telephone number, calculated fee, FY 2004 payment type code, and sufficient information to determine the basis of the calculation, including market rankings for TV stations and populations served for AM/FM radio stations. The contractor will provide the Detailed Report electronically in the format of Microsoft Excel spreadsheets and will provide a master copy of the report on diskette, CD-ROM or other media format accepted by PERM staff. Deliverable 8 – By October 15, 2004, the Contractor will provide an initial Payment Report. The Payment Report will consist of FY 2004 regulatory fee payment data received from CORES/RAMIS, coupled with the facility ID records populated in the Detailed Report. The Payment Report therefore will enable Commission staff to easily identify regulatory fee payments made for each facility ID, as well as non-payments, underpayments and any other payment discrepancies on a Facility ID basis. After the COTR reviews the initial Payment Report, the Contractor, at the COTR’s option, may further refine the Payment Report’s data in an attempt to increase the number or percentage of exact matches in the following data fields for each record: facility ID, call sign, payment type code, and fee amount. The amount of refinement needed to be applied to the initial Payment Report will be dependent upon the quality of the payment data; i.e., how completely and accurately fee payers submitted their FCC Form 159 fee payment data in CORES/RAMIS. All data refinement exercises must be pre-approved by the COTR before the Contractor commences any work. The COTR may also instruct the Contractor to cease all data refinement work if it is not yielding results satisfactory to the COTR. The amount of data refinement will be limited to both the funds available and the due date for the final Payment Report. In the event that funds for data refinement are not exhausted, refinement work will cease when the percentage of records with exact matches reaches 99%. After all data refinement exercises are completed or ceased, the initial Payment Report will be known as the final Payment Report. Deliverable 9 – By October 31, 2004, the Contractor will provide the final Payment Report to PERM staff. Optional Deliverables: Upon the mutual agreement of the COTR and the Contractor, identical tasks and deliverables (spreadsheet development and postcard mailing) may be applied to the regulatory fee service categories of cable subscribers, cable antennae relay service station (CARS) licensees, and/or satellite earth station licensees. Some aspects of cable subscriber and cable operator data are maintained by the Media Bureau. These data are also made publicly available by various commercial research companies. CARS data are maintained in the Media Bureau’s Cable Operations and Licensing System (COALS) database; earth station data are maintained in the International Bureau’s International Bureau Filing System (IBFS) database. Any options that are activated must progress on a schedule of deliverables that is in line with the schedule of deliverables for media services entities. Specifically, optional deliverable dates shall lag no more than two weeks behind the deliverable dates established for media services entities. Required Fee Calculation Methodology: For commercial VHF/UHF television stations, the Contractor will base the regulatory fee amount upon the size of each station’s Nielson Designated Market Area (DMA) as listed in the 2004 Edition of the Television & Cable Factbook, Stations Volume No. 72, Warren Publishing, Inc. For commercial AM/FM radio stations, the Contractor will base the regulatory fee amount upon station classification and population served by the station within its city grade coverage area. The Contractor’s source of population data will be U.S. Census data for 2000. To calculate fees for AM/FM radio stations, the Contractor will first apply data values contained in CDBS to predict each station’s distance to the city grade contour for each of 72 radials. The resulting distance to city grade contours will then be used to form a geographical polygon. Population counts for each station are then to be calculated by determining which 2000 block centroids are contained in the station’s polygon. The sum of the population figures for all enclosed block centroids represents the total population for the predicted city grade coverage area. Contractor Qualifications: To qualify for consideration for this contract, the selected Contractor must maintain its own database or otherwise automated system of records for media services entities that is independent of the Media Bureau’s Consolidated Database System (CDBS). Absent exigent circumstances, the Contractor shall be available upon three business days notice from Commission or PERM staff to attend meetings with Commission or PERM staff and/or any outside experts or contractors retained by the Commission, in order to present, discuss and/or analyze the contractor’s work products and the Commission’s needs. Special Contractor Requirements: A. Data rights: The products created as part of this contract are Excel-based spreadsheets. The spreadsheets will contain attributes such as licensee names, addresses, call signs, FRN's, market area size (for television stations) and population served (for radio stations) for media services licensees. The spreadsheets will be used to direct the mailing of assessment notification postcards and to determine the fee payment status of facility IDs at the close of the FY 2004 regulatory fee season. In performing this contract, the Contractor will not develop software for the FCC. Rather, the Contractor will compile spreadsheets of records in support of the Commission’s regulatory fee assessment initiative. All records’ attributes in the spreadsheets will consist of publicly available information except for one attribute – the radio station population served attribute. The Commission assumes that the population served attribute will be calculated through software developed at the Contractor’s private expense and that the resulting population served data embody trade secrets or are commercial or financial and confidential or privileged. As such, the population served data will be treated as limited rights data and the provisions of the FAR “Rights in Data” clause are hereby incorporated by reference. See 48 C.F.R. § 52.227-14, Alt. I. In furtherance of the FCC’s regulatory fee assessment process, the contractor agrees to allow access to the population served data attribute on an individual query basis. As such, all attributes of a single record may be queried by the public one record at a time by entering the unique data of either a facility ID or a call sign into a web-based search engine provided by the Commission. The Contractor does not authorize any other public access or use of population served data except as specifically provided above. In accordance with agency regulations, the Contractor shall be notified of any requests under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) for access to the population served data beyond the limited use provided for above, and will be given the opportunity to oppose the release of this information. See 47 C.F.R. § 0.461. Under these rules, the Commission will not release the commercial and proprietary data for which Contractor has requested confidentiality prior to its notification and in accordance with the protections afforded by the FOIA regulations. To facilitate the Contractor’s request for limited use/confidential treatment of the population served data, at the time of delivery the Contractor should note and describe which portion of the spreadsheet(s) is encompassed by the provisions of this clause. Deliverable Format: Regarding the preliminary evaluation of the quality of fit between CORES, CDBS and contractor data, PERM will accept the evaluation in verbal or written form. Regarding the postcards, PERM will accept the initial design for the postcards based upon Commission standards for mailings. The Contractor will provide all reports, including the final Detailed Report (a.k.a. the comprehensive spreadsheet) and Payment Report electronically in the format of Microsoft Excel spreadsheets. The Contractor will also provide a master copy of the Detailed Report and Payment Report on diskette, CD-ROM or other media format accepted by PERM staff. Period of Performance: This Task Order shall be effective from date of its execution until September 30, 2004. However, as a five-year multi-year contract, its effectiveness may be extended in one-year increments as far as September 30, 2008 at the mutual consent of both parties. NOTE: THIS NOTICE WAS NOT POSTED TO FEDBIZOPPS.GOV ON THE DATE INDICATED IN THE NOTICE ITSELF (10-DEC-2003). IT ACTUALLY APPEARED OR REAPPEARED ON THE FEDBIZOPPS SYSTEM ON 24-FEB-2004. PLEASE CONTACT fbo.support@gsa.gov REGARDING THIS ISSUE.
- Web Link
-
Link to FedBizOpps document.
(http://www.eps.gov/spg/FCC/FCCOMD/FCCCPC/SOL04000002/listing.html)
- Place of Performance
- Address: Federal Communications Commission 445 12th Street, SW Washington, DC
- Zip Code: 20554
- Country: USA
- Zip Code: 20554
- Record
- SN00530282-F 20040226/040225092006 (fbodaily.com)
- Source
-
FedBizOpps.gov Link to This Notice
(may not be valid after Archive Date)
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