Dept of Ed to Hold Forum for Collection Contract Hopefuls

The United States Department of Education (ED) has announced it will hold a one-day conference for collection agencies interested in contracting opportunities available for small businesses pursuant to the General Services Administration (GSA) schedule for debt collection, Special Item Number 520-4.

The purpose of the conference is to inform interested parties about ED’s Private Collection Agency (PCA) small-business set-aside contracts, which are earmarked for qualified collection agencies that have demonstrated the ability to collect defaulted student loans on a nationwide basis while meeting the Small Business Administration’s size standard for what constitutes a small business in the collection industry.  A collection agency with less than $6.5 million in gross revenue for the past three years, on average, is considered a small business.  The conference will also cover how even non-GSA schedule contract holders can pursue subcontracting opportunities with current and future large businesses serving ED.

Rich Galloway, ED’s Contracting Officer’s Representative, commented, “This outreach effort will cover what vendors need to know before deciding whether or not pursuing our contract is right for them.”

ED’s small-business set-aside contracts have historically yielded an average of $600,000 per month in fees for each awarded agency on current contracts, with current small business vendors managing placements of more than $309 million in inventory on average.

Nick Bernardo, principal of Net Gain Marketing, added, “With this conference ED is once again signaling its continued commitment to running fair and informative procurements while meeting Federal set-aside contracting goals and ensuring that people go into the process with eyes wide open.”

The conference will take place on May 22, 2007, at the St. Louis Airport Marriott hotel.  For more information, and to download the registration form for this event, visit www.pca.ed.gov/conference.html.