Prepaid Card Services

Trade Agreement: NONE
Tendering Procedures: All interested suppliers may submit a bid
Attachment: None
Competitive Procurement Strategy: N/A - P&A/LOI Only
Comprehensive Land Claim Agreement: No
Nature of Requirements: 
THIS IS A REQUEST FOR INFROMATION (RFI) FROM INDUSTRY
FOR THE
PREPAID CARD SERVICES

Previous Request for Comments (RFC)

There was a RFC issued on June 18, 2012 and closed on July 19,
2012. The vision and scope of the prepaid card requirement for
the Receiver General has changed since the previous RFC.

The intent of this new Request for Information (RFI) is to
solicit feedback on all aspects detailed herein and the new
draft Statement of Work, draft Mandatory Technical Criteria,
Security Requirements Checklist (SRCL), draft Security and
Privacy Requirements so as to enable Canada to evaluate the
strategy to be taken, if any, regarding further related
activities.  

More specifically, feedback is sought regarding: 

The potential level of interest in providing services to address
the requirements of the attached Draft Statement of Work;
The processes and procedures involved with issuing an electronic
form of payment for various government programs;
To obtain information and suggestions on other ways of
performing similar functionality or improving on what is being
presented; and
With respect to draft Security and Privacy Requirements
document, indicate if your organization's implementation of the
capability is the same as described for that specific
requirement.  If it is not, provide a description of how your
organization addressed the specific requirement.

PARTICIPATION

The RFI is inclusive and flexible and is not intended to
pre-qualify Respondents for any stages of the project. An
interested Respondent who does not participate in the RFI
process is not precluded from participating in any subsequent
RFP process.

CLOSING DATE

Responses to this RFI will be accepted until 2:00 PM Eastern
Daylight Saving Time (EDST) on March 31, 2014. Responses are to
be submitted by fax or electronically to the Contracting
Authority stated below.  The information received after that
date will be considered only to the extent reasonable, in the
sole opinion of Canada, given the progress of the Work at the
time of receipt of the said information.

SERVICE REQUIREMENTS

The Receiver General for Canada (RG) plans to begin issuing
Prepaid Cards as a new payment product for beneficiaries as a
replacement to the paper cheque process wherever possible. The
RG aims to contract with a service provider to issue, activate,
and load prepaid cards as well as provide support services to
Cardholders. Additionally, the RG requires the ability to
provide instant issuance prepaid cards as may be required by
some departments.

These services may be required for a period of five (5) years
commencing from date of Contract with an irrevocable option on
the part of Canada to extend the period of any resulting
Contract by two (2) additional 1-year periods and one (1)
additional twelve- (12) month transition period.

Overview of Prepaid Cards and Instant Issuance Cards

The RG is responsible for issuing payments on behalf of federal
government departments and certain provincial governments by
using a number of payment products including direct deposits,
paper warrants and wire transfers. The federal government is
working to phase out its issuance of paper warrants by April
2016. This is being done primarily to reduce costs (i.e.:
postage, printing, storage) and improve the reconciliation
process. Beneficiaries are being strongly encouraged to enroll
in the Direct Deposit program to receive government payments.
Those who do not sign up in direct deposit will be gradually
enrolled into the prepaid card program by payment issuing
departments. Once the April 2016 phase out target date arrives,
all beneficiaries still receiving cheques will automatically be
switched to prepaid cards unless they qualify for and register
as an exception.

Currently, departments and programs are able to issue payment by
cheque ("cheque" and "warrant" are considered interchangeable in
this document) by using their departmental financial system to
send the payment information to the RG's payment system, the
Standard Payment System (SPS). The prepaid card program will
involve changes to the SPS such that payment details received
from departments identified as cheques will instead be issued as
prepaid cards. The SPS will have a system in place to identify
beneficiaries across government so that multiple departments and
programs are able to issue payments to the same card. One-time
and recurring payments will be issued to the same card.

The RG will inform the Contractor of beneficiaries to be
enrolled in the prepaid card program and the Contractor will
mail out the cards and instructions for activation. Once
enrolled, any payment received by the SPS for that beneficiary
will be sent to their prepaid card account with the Contractor.
On the due date, the Contractor makes the payment to the
beneficiary's prepaid card account, and then makes their claim
for settlement. 

Additionally, the RG plans to implement a program allowing the
instant issuance of prepaid cards for amounts determined by
departments as required. In certain circumstances government
payments must be issued with very little advance notice. Instant
issuance cards must be available to allow departments to assign,
activate and load a prepaid card from a departmental location
where funds are available to the beneficiary immediately.

Please note that in this document, "prepaid cards" will refer to
the cards being used to replace cheque payments while "instant
issuance prepaid cards" will refer to only the cards required by
certain programs for instant loading and availability of funds.

RESPONSES REGARDING THIS REQUIREMENT ARE TO BE SUBMITTED TO THE
FOLLOWING PWGSC CONTRACTING AUTHORITY:

Lysianne McNeely
Supply Specialist
Public Works and Government Services Canada
Acquisitions Branch
Professional Services Procurement Directorate
Place du Portage, Phase III, 10C1
11 Laurier Street
Gatineau, Quebec
K1A 0S5

Tel: (819) 956-5193
Fax: (819) 956-2675
              Email:  Lysianne.McNeely@tpsgc-pwgsc.gc.ca

Delivery Date: Above-mentioned

The Crown retains the right to negotiate with suppliers on any
procurement.

Documents may be submitted in either official language of Canada.