Education seeks financial management support
The Federal Student Aid program needs a vendor to monitor activity in the Education Department's Financial Management System and perform development, security and daily operations maintenance.
The Education Department’s Federal Student Aid (FSA) program is seeking support for its Financial Management System (FMS). The department released a draft proposal May 13 on the Federal Business Opportunities Web site. FSA needs a vendor to monitor daily FMS activity and perform development, security and daily operations maintenance, the department said in the posting. Comments are due by June 9. FSA expects to move FMS operations to a new vendor between September and November, the department said. In addition to integrating FSA's systems and acquiring new applications, Education said it hopes to improve program integrity and access to colleges and universities, enhance customer service, and reduce program administration costs. The department also wants the system to help make federal student financial assistance programs less susceptible to fraud, waste, abuse and mismanagement.FMS is the single point of institutional financial information for FSA and integrates data from several sources. Education anticipates the award of a single indefinite-delivery, indefinite-quantity contract with a one-year base period and nine one-year options. The contract will be a mix of fixed price, time and materials, and performance-based task orders.