The contractor assessing FHA's internal control over financial reporting shall determine whether control deficiencies, as defined in A-123, exist. If control deficiencies exist, the contractor shall determine if they rise to the level of a significant deficiency or material weakness as defined in A-123. For identified control deficiencies, the contractor shall recommend improvements needed to strengthen internal controls. The result of this assessment will provide a basis for management's assurance statement regarding the effectiveness of internal control over financial reporting.

Responses to this announcement will not be returned, nor will there be any discussions or debriefings of any responses. However, information obtained as a result of this announcement may be reflected in the subsequent solicitation, and HUD may contact one or more respondents for clarifications and to enhance the government's understanding. This announcement is Government market research, and may result in revisions in both its requirements and its acquisition strategy based on industry responses. RESPONDENTS MUST SUBMIT THEIR CAPABILITY STATEMENT AND SUPPORTING DOCUMENTATION VIA E-MAIL in MS Word, WordPerfect, or Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF) to Robert Caldwell at robert.e.caldwell@hud.gov no later than Monday, April 22, 2013 at 5:00PM Eastern Standard Time for consideration.