Feasibility of Revising the SNAP Quality Control Review Process

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: Feasibility of Revising the SNAP Quality Control Review Process. 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 2016 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. The U.S. Department of Agriculture, Food and Nutrition Service is seeking a contractor to conduct a cost/benefit analysis of changing the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) Quality Control (QC) system from a two-tier process that relies on States to review SNAP cases and make payment error determinations with a subsample re-reviewed by FNS employees to a one-tier process where only FNS reviews SNAP cases for payment errors. 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 identifying the components and processes required by a one-tier Quality Control (QC) process where one central organization within FNS conducts the QC reviews for all 53 SNAP State agencies. This feasibility study will also assess the costs, staffing and organization changes, system requirements, data sharing agreements, access to State or other databases that are needed to convert the current QC review process to a one-tier review process conducted by Federal reviewers. This study responds to a recommendation from a recent USDA Office of Inspector General (OIG) audit of the FNS QC system. 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 & Contracts Management Division, 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 G). Expound, utilizing specific examples, on how the firm has undertaken and/or demonstrated the prerequisites listed below: A. Demonstrated experience managing projects of similar size and scope to meet government objectives, ensure the quality and timeliness of deliverables, and coordinate with government funding agencies. B. Demonstrated familiarity with and understanding of SNAP at the national and State levels. Including demonstrated familiarity with and understanding of SNAP Quality Control (QC) history, policy, guidance, and implementation. C. Demonstrated experience with qualitative content analysis. D. Demonstrated ability in managing and analysis of quantitative data, including budgetary data. E. Demonstrated ability to carry out data management, analysis, and synthesis across a diverse set of qualitative and quantitative data sets simultaneously all within limited time and budget constraints while meeting targets for project milestones and are of high quality. F. Demonstrated ability in creating templates for unified reporting of data and information at the state and national levels. G. Capacity to write reports and provide oral briefings on technical information in language appropriate to non-technical policy-relevant audiences. Research Objectives of the Requirement: Objective 1: Document how the QC review process would change if it became a one-tier rather than two-tier system. Objective 2: Determine the changes needed to the Federal QC staff size and organizational structure for a one-tier QC system. Objective 3: Determine the necessary technological infrastructure for a one-tier QC system. Objective 4: Determine which Federal and State databases the Federal QC staff would need to access to conduct verifications. Objective 5: Explore other alternatives to the current QC review process. Objective 6: Estimate the costs and timeline of changing from a two-tier to a one-tier SNAP QC review process. Submission Requirements: 1. Limit the length of the packages to 10 double spaced pages. Note: Packages over 10 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 ten (10) 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 - G 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 7 capabilities (A - G) pre-requisites listed above. Please specify one primary and one alternate Point of Contact (POC) within your firm, including telephone numbers and email addresses. Your capability statement needs to 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: Natasha.Abbington@fns.usda.gov. The e-mail shall contain the following subject line: Response to Sources Sought Notice - AG-3198-S-16-0042: Feasibility of Revising the SNAP Quality Control Review Process. 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 Natasha Abbington at Natasha.Abbington@fns.usda.gov no later than April 14, 2016 by 5:00 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time. NO TELEPHONE REQUESTS WILL BE ACCEPTED.