CASH ORDER 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 NOT A SOLICITATION DOCUMENT

THIS IS A REQUEST FOR INFORMATION (RFI) 
FOR CASH ORDER SERVICES


The intent of this Request for Information (RFI) is to solicit
feedback from the Canadian banking industry on all aspects
detailed herein including a high-level description of the
required services, as well as questions.  This will enable the
Receiver General for Canada (RG) to evaluate the strategy to be
taken and to assist in defining the requirement for an upcoming
Request for Proposal (RFP) related to the services listed below. 

SERVICE REQUIREMENTS

The RG seeks to provide the following services to select Federal
Government Departments. All required services would be provided
by the Contractor's Financial Institution (FI) branches within a
defined proximity of the federal department locations requiring
the services. The intention of an RFP would be to have bidders
bid on the services for all, or some, of the locations in which
they are required.  

1.	Large Value Cash Orders 

Certain federal government departments require large value cash
orders in order to satisfy operational requirements. Large value
cash orders would generally be in the range of $5,000 to
$200,000; however some requests could be of a lesser or greater
amount depending upon specific departmental requirements.
Currently these types of cash orders are available to only two
federal departments: (1) National Defense (DND) and (2) the
Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP), although additional
departments may be added as required.  

In general, the requesting departmental location would provide
the Contractor's FI branch servicing their location a
pre-notification indicating the identity of its authorized
departmental representative responsible for picking up the cash
as well as the value, currency, denominations required, and
approximate pickup time. The departmental location would then
send its authorized representative to pick up the cash. This
employee would be positively identified by the Contractor's FI
branch according to predetermined identification requirements,
and the cash would be released to the individual. 

2.	Bank Draft Service for the Royal Canadian Mounted Police

The RCMP requires a service for obtaining bank drafts. In order
to facilitate this, the RCMP location would provide the FI
branch servicing their location a pre-notification indicating
the identity of its authorized RCMP representative responsible
for picking up the bank draft, the name that they would like to
have included on the bank draft, along with the value, currency,
and approximate pickup time. The departmental location would
then send the authorized representative to pick up the draft.
This employee would be positively identified by the FI branch
according to predetermined identification requirements, and the
draft would be released to the individual

QUESTIONS

1.	What amount of lead time would be required for the
pre-notification on large value cash orders and/or bank draft
requests?

1.	In the past, large value cash orders and bank draft requests
have been accomplished with the authorized departmental
representative bringing in an RG cheque in their name. Given the
Government of Canada's (GC) stated goal of phasing out GC
cheques in favour of direct deposits (DD), could settlement
occur through a direct deposit made to an internal FI branch
bank account?

2.	In the past, identification requirements for large value cash
orders or bank draft requests involved the FI branch reviewing
identification and transcribing the particulars from the
identification on the back of the cheque. This would not work
with DDs. Would you support a scenario in which authorized
departmental representatives were issued a non-ATM accessible
convenience card? This would allow the representative to be
positively identified through a PIN number at the teller station
of the FI branch.

a.	If this would be possible, what personal information would
you require about the authorized departmental representative in
order to be able to provide them with a non-ATM accessible
convenience card (e.g. name, business address, etc)?

3.	Rather than the authorized departmental representatives
picking up large value cash orders in branch would you be
willing/able to provide a cash parcel service in which large
value cash orders are delivered by the contractor directly to
specific departmental locations? 

a.	If so, would there be a minimum value of the cash order that
you would entertain?
b.	Would this service only be available within major city
centres?
c.	Understanding that the costs of such a cash parcel service
would vary based upon location etc, would you be able to provide
a high-level idea of the costs for such a service?
d.	Would you bid on this arrangement if it included a cash
parcel delivery service, or only if it included in-person pickup
of large cash deposits by authorized departmental
representatives?

4.	Do you have any suggestions on how the general services
described in this document might be provided?

5.	Do you have any concerns with the general processes described
above that you would like to address?
NOTE TO POTENTIAL RESPONDENTS 

Responses

Responding to this request is not a prerequisite to receiving
any resulting Request for Proposal for this requirement. 
However, all Respondents are encouraged to indicate their level
of interest by responding with their comments in order to
facilitate a better understanding of requirements and Industry
perspectives.

The publication of this RFI must not be construed as a
commitment on Canada's part to issue a
subsequent Request for Proposal for this requirement and no
contract or other form of commitment will be entered into with
any Respondent based on responses to this RFI. This RFI must in
no way be
considered as authorization by Canada for Respondents to
undertake any work, which would result in
costs to Canada.

Canada will not be liable for, nor will it reimburse any
Respondents for any costs, fees or expenses which
any Respondent incurs in the preparation or submission of its
response to this RFI. Canada will not be
bound by anything stated herein. Canada reserves the right to
change, at any time, any or all parts of the
requirement as it renders necessary.

All responses to this RFI will be held by Canada on a
confidential basis (subject to applicable legislation), and
remain the property of Canada once they have been received and
may be used to support further development of internal planning
documents and decisions, and possibly an RFP.  Note that
responses to the RFI will not be returned.


PARTICIPATION

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

CLOSING DATE

Responses to this RFI will be accepted until 2:00 PM Eastern
Standard Time (EST) on December 15, 2014. The information
received after that date will be considered only to the extent
reasonable, in the sole opinion of Canada.

ENQUIRIES

Any questions from Respondents concerning this RFI must be made
in writing to the Contracting Authority stated below, via e-mail
on or before the closing date.

Canada reserves the right to not respond to questions received
after the closing date or to any question not related to this
RFI.  Enquiries that are of a proprietary nature must be clearly
marked "proprietary" at each relevant item.  Items identified as
"proprietary" will be treated as such except where Canada
determines that the enquiry is not of a proprietary nature. 
Canada may edit the questions or may request that the respondent
do so, so that the proprietary nature of the question is
eliminated, and the responses will be made publicly available
through the Government Electronic Tendering Service
(https://buyandsell.gc.ca/).  Enquiries not submitted in a form
that can be distributed to all Respondents may not be answered
by Canada. If a question is determined to be proprietary, Canada
reserves the right to respond only to that party.

FORMAT OF RESPONSE

Comments and responses to the questions must be provided prior
the closing date, electronically to the Contracting Authority
identified below.

CLARIFICATION

Canada may require clarification of written responses and/or
comments received as a result of the responses received FI. If
required, any clarification will be requested in writing.

Respondents are advised that any information submitted to PWGSC
in response to this Request for Information may be used in the
development of a subsequent RFP. Respondents will not be bound
by any aspect of their response to this RFI. All responses will
be held by Canada on a confidential basis (subject to
application legislation), and remain the property of Canada once
they have been received and may be used to support further
development of internal planning documents and decisions, and
possibly an RFP. Note that responses will not be returned.

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

Karen Marcotte, Contracting Officer, Acquisitions Branch
Professional Services Procurement Directorate
Public Works and Government Services Canada
Place du Portage, Phase III, 10C1
11 Laurier Street, Gatineau, Quebec, K1A 0S5
Tel: (819) 956-8165
Email:  Karen.Marcotte@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.