USDA, Food and Consumer Service, Contract Management Branch, 3101 Park Center Dr., Rm. 914, Alexandria, VA 22302

B -- WIC VENDOR MANAGEMENT AND ABUSE STUDY SOL FCS-96-012JJT DUE 070996 POC Jennifer Thompson, Contract Specialist, (703) 305-2250 William Pinkey, Contracting Officer, (703) 305-2250. The United States Department of Agriculture, Food and Consumer Service (FCS) plans to conduct a study of State WIC Agency vendor management practices, vendor abuse, and WIC food costs. The primary goal of this study is to identify state vendor selection criteria and management practices that may be useful in containing costs and preventing vendor abuse. In addition, FCS would like to ascertain the impact of vendor selection criteria upon participant access to WIC authorized stores. Finally, this study will provide national estimates of the prevalence and magnitude of vendor abuse. Management practices data will be collected through vendor compliance investigations and manager surveys of a nationally representative stratified cluster sample of vendors. The contractor will be responsible for developing survey instruments, constructing the vendor sample, selecting and training surveyors, collecting data, creating data bases, analyzing the data, and preparing analytical reports. The contractor will be expected to exhibit expertise in WIC vendor issues and compliance investigation. Analyses will include descriptive statistics, contingency tables and multivariate analysis. The estimated level of effort is approximately 4 person years. The request for proposal (RFP) will be issued on or about 06/05/96. Applications will be due on or about 07/09/96. Awards will be determined competitively by FCS. All requests for the RFP must be in writing and must include four (4) self addressed mailing labels. Telephone requests will not be honored. (0138)

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