GD fights for $850M student loan contract
General Dynamics is protesting an $850 million contract won by Maximus to help the Office of Federal Student Aid manage its debt management and collections processes.
General Dynamics Information Technology has filed a protest over an Education Department contract it lost to Maximus Inc.
The $848.4 million contract is for the operation and maintenance of the Debt Management and Collections System run by the Office of Federal Student Aid.
Maximus won the contract on Oct. 1. GD filed its protest on Nov. 12. A decision from the Government Accountability Office is expected by Feb. 20.
When Maximus won the contract, the company said the win was part of a strategy to move into more agencies and adjacent programs. The company is best known for the work it does supporting state and local and international social services programs such as Medicaid.
“This contract underscores our efforts to extend our core offerings, such as citizen engagement, customer contact centers and case management,” said Richard Montoni, Maximus CEO.
The contract supports the Office of Federal Student Aid with debt management and collections of defaulted student loans. The contact has a two-year and three month base and eight one-year options. The base contract runs through Dec. 31, 2015.
Work under the contract includes citizen-centric administrative business functions such as an in-bound customer contact center to respond to inquiries from borrowers and various third parties. The prime contractor also will operate an intake facility for correspondence, collateral and other hard-copy materials, a correspondence unit to respond to borrowers’ inquiries, a financial transaction processing center, and a mail fulfillment center, Maximus said in its announcement.