Trafficking_Sources_Sought_Notice_04_27_2015.pdf

Sources Sought Notice

Extent of SNAP Benefit Trafficking: 2012-2014

This SOURCES SOUGHT NOTICE is for small businesses only. The purpose of this sources sought notice is to determine the interest and feasibility of a small business set-aside for the following requirement: Evaluation of Food Insecurity Nutrition Incentives. This synopsis is for information and planning purposes and is not to be construed as a commitment by the U.S.

Government, nor will the U.S. Government pay for information solicited. The information from this notice will help the Food and Nutrition Service plan their acquisition strategy.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture, Food and Nutrition Service intends to issue a procurement for the subject research study in Fiscal Year 2015 and is seeking statements of capability from potential offerors. Preference will be given to small businesses with experience and staffing to perform the requirement as demonstrated in their capability statement.

USDA’s Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) is responsible for authorizing and managing retailer participation in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), and only authorized food retailers can redeem benefits for cash from the Federal Government. FNS uses a variety of resources from state-of-the-art technology to undercover investigations to reduce and prevent retailer-level trafficking of SNAP benefits

. As part of USDA’s efforts to monitor program integrity, beginning in 1993, FNS has periodically produced estimates of retailer-level benefit trafficking, with the most recent estimates spanning 2009-2011

Although SNAP retailer trafficking does not increase costs to the Federal Government, it is a diversion of program benefits from their intended purpose of helping low-income families access a nutritious diet. This study will update the series by calculating the retailer trafficking estimates for the period spanning 2012 to 2014.

FNS is seeking a contractor to update the retailer trafficking estimates by generating the

“current” estimates for the period spanning 2012 to 2014 and produce the seventh report in the series on retailer trafficking estimates. The study will also require that the contractor develop a regression-based approach for calculating trafficking estimates and apply this regression adjustment to the 2009-2011 and 2012-2014 data to generate trafficking estimates to compare with the “current” estimates.

Definition of Trafficking

The sale or exchange of SNAP benefits for anything other than food sold by an authorized SNAP retailer is illegal. Trafficking means

Fraud: What is FNS Doing to Fight Fraud: http://www.fns.usda.gov/fraud/what-fns-doing-fight-snap-fraud

2 http://www.fns.usda.gov/fraud/what-snap-fraud 3 Mantovani, Richard, Eric Sean Williams, and Jacqueline Pflieger. The Extent of Trafficking in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program: 2009–2011. Prepared by ICF International for the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Food and Nutrition Service, August 2013. Available online at:

http://www.fns.usda.gov/extent-trafficking-supplemental-nutrition-assistance-program-2009-2011-august-2013.

4 Please see: CFR Title 7, Subtitle B, Chapter II, Subchapter C, Part 271, §2712.

5 Under the terms of the Agricultural Act of 2014, manual vouchers will be phased out.

http://www.fns.usda.gov/fraud/what-fns-doing-fight-snap-fraud http://www.fns.usda.gov/fraud/what-snap-fraud http://www.fns.usda.gov/extent-trafficking-supplemental-nutrition-assistance-program-2009-2011-august-2013 http://www.ecfr.gov/cgi-bin/retrieveECFR?gp=1&SID=f0886cec5098c14bdacfe720620d254c&ty=HTML&h=L&r=SECTION&n=se7.4.271_12

(1) The buying, selling, stealing, or otherwise effecting an exchange of SNAP benefits issued and accessed via Electronic Benefit Transfer (EBT) cards, card numbers and personal identification numbers (PINs), or by manual voucher and signature , for cash or consideration other than eligible food, either directly, indirectly, in complicity or collusion with others, or acting alone;

(2) The exchange of firearms, ammunition, explosives, or controlled substances, as defined in section 802 of title 21, United States Code, for SNAP benefits;

(3) Purchasing a product with SNAP benefits that has a container requiring a return deposit with the intent of obtaining cash by discarding the product and returning the container for the deposit amount, intentionally discarding the product, and intentionally returning the container for the deposit amount;

(4) Purchasing a product with SNAP benefits with the intent of obtaining cash or consideration other than eligible food by reselling the product, and subsequently intentionally reselling the product purchased with SNAP benefits in exchange for cash or consideration other than eligible food; or

(5) Intentionally purchasing products originally purchased with SNAP benefits in exchange for cash or consideration other than eligible food.

PLEASE NOTE THAT THIS IS NOT A REQUEST FOR PROPOSAL, NO SOLICITATION

EXISTS AT THIS TIME.

The Food and Nutrition Service, Office of Policy Support & Contracts Management Division, is conducting a market survey to determine the availability and technical capability of qualified small businesses, including small disadvantaged businesses (SDB), 8(a) small businesses, woman-owned small businesses (WOSB), veteran owned small businesses (VOSB), service-disabled veteran-owned small businesses (SDVOSB), and Historically Under-utilized Business

Zone (HUBZone) small businesses capable of updating retailer trafficking estimates by generating the “current” estimates for the period spanning 2012 to 2014 and produce the seventh report in the series on retailer trafficking estimates. The study will also require that the contractor develop a regression-based approach for calculating trafficking estimates and apply this regression adjustment to the 2009-2011 and 2012-2014 data to generate trafficking estimates to compare with the “current” estimates.

All responding small business firms are requested to identify their firm's size and type of business to the anticipated North American Industrial Classification System (NAICS) code. For this acquisition, the NAICS code is 541720, and the Small Business Standard is $20.5 Million.

Teaming arrangements and joint ventures will be considered for any subsequent procurement based on the Government's market research, provided the prime contract is awarded to an applicable small business and that the small business provide at least fifty percent of the support.

The Food and Nutrition Service, Office of Policy Support is conducting market research to identify sources that can demonstrate their experience, skills, and qualifications with projects of similar scope and size completed within the last three (3) years, and explain in appropriate detail how they intend to demonstrate competency in each of the following points (A) through (I).

Expound, utilizing specific examples, on how the firm has undertaken and/or demonstrated the prerequisites listed below:

In order to monitor the integrity of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), beginning in 1993, approximately every three years the Food and Nutrition Service has produced estimates of retailer-level benefit trafficking, which for the purposes of this study is defined as retailer buying benefits from a SNAP participant for cash . This study will produce the seventh in a series of such reports. The most recent report is available on our web site and can be downloaded from www.fns.usda.gov/extent-trafficking-supplemental-nutrition-assistance-program-2009-2011-august-2013.

Study Objectives

The objectives of the proposed study are for the period spanning 2012 to 2014:

1. To provided up-to-date year-by-year estimates of the frequency of retailer-level trafficking in the SNAP program using an established estimation methods;

2. To provide up-to-date estimates of the frequency of retailer- level trafficking based upon type of store;

3. To provide up-to-date estimates of the frequency of retailer- level trafficking based upon the poverty level of a store’s neighborhood;

4. To provide up-to-date estimates of the frequency of retailer- level trafficking based upon level of urbanization of store location;

5. To provide up-to-date estimates of the frequency of retailer- level trafficking based upon a store’s SNAP redemption level;

6. To provide up-to-date year-by-year estimates of the amount of dollars trafficked through retailer-level trafficking in the SNAP program, including the proportion of dollars trafficked;

7. To provide estimates of dollars trafficked through retailer-level trafficking based upon the criteria mentioned in objectives 2 through 5;

8. To develop and test a new regression-based methodology for calculating SNAP retailer-level trafficking; and

9. To recalculate retailer-level trafficking estimates as set forth in objectives 1 through 7 using the new regression-based methodology.

To meet these study objectives, FNS is seeking firms with the capabilities of providing:

A. The resources to achieve the objectives on a compressed schedule;

B. A dedicated project director who can deliver high quality work, adhere to a compressed project schedule; keep costs within budget, manage the work of the professionals completing the task, and provide knowledge and understanding of FNS programs;

C. A proven ability to clean, manage, and manipulate large existing data sets from different sources;

D. A proven ability to develop complex statistical estimation models using existing data sources, http://www.fns.usda.gov/extent-trafficking-supplemental-nutrition-assistance-program-2009-2011-august-2013 http://www.fns.usda.gov/extent-trafficking-supplemental-nutrition-assistance-program-2009-2011-august-2013

E. Substantial experience using Statistical Analysis System (SAS) software, including developing SAS code;

F. An established protocol for working with personal identifying information;

G. Experience working with United States Census data;

H. Staff experienced with completing complex statistical analyses and modeling techniques using existing data sources; and

I. Staff with the experience and skills to produce, on a compressed schedule, high quality, edited reports for use by both technical readers and policy officials.

Submission Requirements:

1. Limit the length of the packages to 15 double spaced pages. Note: Packages over 15 pages will not be evaluated.

2. 1 inch margins (top, bottom and sides)

3. Times New Roman font - 12 point

4. Page limitation does not include appendices, 1 cover page or 1 letter of introduction page

5. Do not include promotional materials

Interested firms responding to this market survey must provide a capability statement demonstrating their experience, skills and capability to fulfill the Governments requirements for the above in accordance with Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) 19.502-2(b). The capability statement shall be in sufficient enough detail, but not exceed fifteen (15) pages TOTAL, so that the Government can determine the experience and capability of your firm to provide the requirements above. The Government technical team will then assess the experience and capabilities (A - I above) based on: 1) technical expertise relevant to the requirement; 2) technical approach relevant to the requirement, 3) management approach relevant to the requirement, 4) corporate experience relevant to the requirement, and 5) relevant past performance. These capability responses should be based upon the 9 capabilities (A – I) pre-requisites listed above. Please specify one primary and one alternate Point of Contact (POC) within your firm, including telephone numbers and email addresses

The Capability statements shall include a list of three customers (Government/non-Government) within the past 3-years highlighting similar work in nature, scope, complexity, and difficulty and a brief description of the scope of work.

Only electronic copies of capability statements will be accepted and should be emailed to:

Kevin.Alexander@fns.usda.gov. The e-mail shall contain the following subject line: Response to Sources Sought Notice – _AG-3198-S-15-0038 Extent of SNAP Benefit Trafficking: 2012-

2014. A determination by the Government to proceed with the acquisition as a set-aside is within the discretion of the Government. If capability statements are not received from at least two responsible small businesses or if the Government determines that no small business concerns are capable of performing this requirement based upon an assessment of the capability statements submitted, the Government may proceed with a full and open competition.

Please submit all information to Kevin Alexander at Kevin.Alexander@fns.usda.gov no later than May 11, 2015 by 5:00 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time. NO TELEPHONE REQUESTS

WILL BE ACCEPTED.