NTIA Soon to Begin Choosing Service Firms for DTV Coupon Program
NTIA hired an Alexandria, Va. project management company -- FunctionalIT -- as a “support contractor” to begin the first phases of its $1.5 billion coupon program on DTV converter box subsidies (CD July 25 p3). FunctionalIT’s job: Helping NTIA identify contractors most qualified to design the coupons, certify which retailers will take part and build in safeguards against waste, fraud and abuse.
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Congress allocated NTIA up to $160 million for administration costs of the coupon program. NTIA isn’t yet seeking formal bids for that lucrative contract -- only a request for information (RFI), issued July 31, asking those that may be interested to state their qualifications. RFI submissions are due Sept. 15. Ten days later, comments are due in the NTIA’s rulemaking that will largely determine how the coupon program’s final rules will take shape.
In the RFI, NTIA asks candidates to give their “best estimates of the rough order of magnitude for various tasks” crucial to the coupon program. They're also asked to give “comparative information for options that might be available to implement” the program. If, for example, “the actual coupon might be paper, a plastic card or some other medium,” NTIA is interested in knowing “the comparative costs of different solutions that could be used” to set up and run the program and “its component activities,” the RFI said. NTIA said it also realizes that costs will vary depending on the level of security adopted for thwarting waste, fraud and abuse. NTIA wants cost estimates on security options, the RFI said.
NTIA said it doesn’t know yet how it will acquire the contractual services needed to run the program. But it expects to hire a mix of “performance-based and fixed-price services with variable prices for services where the level of effort is related to the actual number of coupons requested and redeemed,” the RFI said. It’s expected that “all project deliverables will be reviewed by an independent verification and validation contractor,” NTIA said.
In the RFI, NTIA said it’s seeking data on a candidate’s ability to handle the entire coupon program. Though the agency prefers contractors that can do that, it also will consider candidates with special expertise in one or more of the program’s major parts, the RFI said: “NTIA is particularly interested in a responder’s ability to operate the Coupon Program in a manner that minimizes waste, fraud and abuse.”
Candidates are asked to summarize their past experience “implementing projects comparable in nature, size, scope and complexity” with the coupon program, the RFI said: “By obtaining information on past projects, NTIA expects to evaluate the feasibility of its approach and schedule and to use the lessons learned in other projects to refine its approach and develop mitigation strategies to reduce schedule, cost and performance risks.”