EBT Re-procurement - Lessons Learned & Best Practices

FNS performed an inventory of EBT procurements and conducted a few interviews of some States and EBT processors. As a results, we developed a technical assistance document with lessons learned and best practices on EBT re-procurements.

• Problem or Challenge #1 - RFPs often don’t accurately reflect a state’s current needs and expectations, current federal regulations and policy, or the current market conditions, and are not written to be flexible or forward looking, making the resulting contract ineffective at responding to changing conditions, or requiring lots of change orders.
• Problem or Challenge #2 - Joint procurements between SNAP and WIC don’t go as planned, or don’t achieve expected results.
• Problem or Challenge #3 - Vendor proposals are under- or over-responsive. They seem to inadequately address some expectations, and provide countless pages on others, making it hard to compare them and score them consistently.
• Problem or Challenge #4 - Despite state intentions to balance price and quality, the lowest priced vendor wins.
• Problem or Challenge #5 - Time is wasted trying to negotiate over things that are non-negotiable.
• Problem or Challenge #6 - Determining the right contract length.
• Problem or Challenge #7: - Contract penalties are difficult to enforce