Large Ed Subcontractor to Pursue Private Collection Agency Contract

Gatestone & Co. International, Inc. (formerly Collectcorp) announced its intention to seek participation in the U.S. Department of Education’s (ED) Private Collection Agency (PCA) contract when the procurement is held later this year.  Although the firm did not participate in the 2008 procurement, Gatestone management has decided to pursue this opportunity in 2012 in light of the firm’s unique qualifications as a potential new vendor for ED and general market conditions in the higher education sector.

By virtue of its multiple successful engagements as a subcontractor for other PCAs over the past few years, Gatestone has more extensive experience collecting dollars for ED on the current PCA contract than any other large business, other than the current PCAs themselves.  The firm has collected $400 million for ED over the past several years, which includes dollars collected as a prime contractor and as a subcontractor to multiple firms.

Additionally, Gatestone has made investments in order to maintain compliance with the Federal Information Security Management Act (FISMA).  While numerous firms that seek to do business with ED have also made such investments, Gatestone is believed to be the only collection agency with an Authority to Operate (ATO) from ED that does not currently itself hold a 2008 task order.  An ATO is available only to those companies with a task order from ED, which Gatestone still maintains from its original award in 2004.  This effectively identifies Gatestone as an incrementally lower-risk awardee than other firms, whose information technology and security processes have not been tested in a real-world, ED environment with live borrower data.

CEO Nick Wilson commented, “Better than any other non-incumbent contractor, we at Gatestone understand the unique challenges presented by the ED contract. We look forward to using our experience and proven capabilities to become an important part of ED’s efforts to manage delinquencies.”

Gatestone currently seeks to expand their executive management to support the contract, should ED choose to make an award to the company.  Interested parties should contact Sarah Rawlings at 800.900.4238, x2208.