Credit Reporting Services

1. Background

   The Government of Canada approved the Standard on Security Screening, a supporting instrument to the Policy on Government Security, which came into effect on October 20, 2014. This Standard requires that credit checks be conducted for all individuals undergoing security screening. The purpose of the credit check (financial inquiry) is to provide information on the individual’s identity, credit history, liens, judgements and bankruptcy, in order to identify and reduce risk to government security. As a result of this, Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) is seeking the services of a credit report agency with extensive government experience to provide credit reporting services as a component of the security screening process on requested individuals.

2. Objectives

   Fisheries and Oceans Canada requires the services of a credit reporting agency to provide complete, accurate and current consumer credit reports on individuals undergoing a security screening process. Credit reporting services will respect federal and provincial legal, privacy and security imperatives and be delivered in an efficient and effective manner.

3. Scope

   Fisheries and Oceans Canada requires automated credit reporting services on an ongoing basis to provide consumer credit reports in support of the Government of Canada security screening process. Fisheries and Oceans Canada expects to require approximately 6,000 consumer credit reports on individuals per year.

4. Tasks

   The Contractor must provide approximately 6,000 consumer credit reports annually which would include the elements described below.

   4.1 The web based-platform must allow the user to input the following, but not limited to, information to make a query to obtain a consumer credit report:

i. Surname

ii. Given names

iii. Address (# and street, city, province, state, country)

iv. Postal code

v. Date of Birth

vi. 2^nd address

vii. Phone number

4.1.1 Consumer credit reports must be made available on an instantaneous basis. There may be certain circumstances when an extended period* of time will be required for out of country checks to be conducted.

*extended period shall be defined as a period of time up to a maximum of two (2) weeks after a query has been made.

4.2 The consumer credit report must include, but is not limited to, the following elements:

1. Date of report;
2. Individuals name
3. Any known aliases;
4. Individuals date of birth;
5. Date of last inquiry on file;
6. Individual’s current address and telephone number;
7. Previous addresses on file;
8. Reported employment;
9. File summary (includes: total number of legal items & bankruptcies & collections inquiries, all with dates of most current, total available credit to consumer, running credit balance, total post due, total payments, number of accounts, number of accounts with negative rating, number of accounts paid, breakdown of balances by Instalment, Revolving, Open and Mortgage, date of oldest account and newest account opened, total number of Registered Items);
10. Special messages (i.e.: fraud alert, ID mismatch alert);
11. Banking information: ID number, name and phone number of institution, date of information, date of account opening, narrative;
12. Trades and mortgages: ID number, name and phone number of institution, date of information, date of account opening, date of last activity, payment pattern, credit limit/high credit, balance owing, amount past due at time of report, terms of payment including amount and frequency, narrative;
13. Bankruptcy information and consumer proposal: date of information, date of bankruptcy(ies), trustee, assets, liabilities, discharges with dates;
14. Legal items: date of information, date of court action, court information, plaintiff’s name, amount, balance, comments;
15. Collections information: date of information, date of collections action, collection agency information, amount, balance, comments;
16. Inquiries: date, agency;
17. Comments on file.

4.3 The Contractor must provide:

1. A web based application and all new versions of upgrade introduced to systems with no disruption in service;
2. Information encryption for data transmission purposes including, at a minimum, Transport Layer Security (TLS);
3. A minimum of sixty (60) days notice should the Contractor decide to change the format in which information is transmitted or received;
4. Provide DFO with online/computer based training and/or Technical Support training on the use of system/web based application and analysis of credit reports;
5. The ability to provide telephone and internet services should the online system fail;
6. A hard copy or electronic billing report of each query, for invoice payment on a monthly basis.

4.4 The Contractor must provide technical support and support for interpretation of reports by telephone, Monday to Friday (excluding statutory holidays) from 8:00 to 17:00 Eastern Standard Time (EST).

4.5 At the request of the Project Authority (PA), the Contractor must provide up to two (2) training sessions per year. These training sessions will be for new DFO employees using the web based-platform and for DFO personnel, selected by the PA, when amendments to credit information have been made to the consumer credit reports.

4.6 The Contractor must ensure that all credit reports for government screening purposes is “masked/soft query” to ensure no adverse influence from a subsequent review of an individual’s credit status by a credit grantor.

5. Deliverables

The Contractor must provide full consumer credit report that included all elements as outlined in section 4.2 Tasks of the Statement of Work.

The Contractor must provide additional information within a consumer credit report (ex. High Risk Fraud Alerts) if requested by the PA.

6.0 Language of Work

The consumer credit reports must be in English.