Social Security Administration, Office of Acquisition and Grants, 1710 Gwynn Oak Avenue, Baltimore, Maryland 21207-0696

B -- TRANSLATION, DATA COLLECTION, AND ELECTRONIC LINKAGE OF INFORMATION ON TRENDS IN SOCIAL SECURITY POC DUE 102695 POC Madeline Y. Tims Tel: 410-965-9488 The Social Security Administration (SSA) is planning to award a contract for obtaining responses on developments and trends in social security programs from approximately 170 countries' social security institutions. The work to be performed is the revision of country charts that were contained in SOCIAL SECURITY PROGRAMS THROUGHOUT THE WORLD, 1995, (SSPTW), the collection of documentation on changes to social security systems throughout the world, and providing searchable (at least by year, country and major type of social security program, i.e. old age, survivors and disability; sickness and maternity; work injury; unemployment; and family allowances) data files in electronic form (that can be linked to each other and to SSPTW charts) of: 1) legislative amendments, draft legislation and proposals for reform since January 1, 1995, and 2) the text of national laws on social security since January 1, 1995. Specifically, the data will be used by SSA for the updating of the research report Social Security Programs Throughout the World, as well as general ad hoc requests for information from a variety of sources both within and outside the government. The contractor shall instruct the social security institutions to revise their charts so that the data contained therein reflect the social security positions effectiveJanuary 1, 1997 or later based on decisions taken on or before January 1, 1997; provide translations from English to one of the other three official working languages (French, Spanish, or German) as required of non-English-speaking social security institutions (The contractor shall use the Spanish version, where available, from the Spanish edition of SSPTW published by SSA); distribute the English orSpanish charts, that will be provided in electronic form, and for countries requiringtranslation, use the English chart as of 1995 as the basis for translation; dispatch the country charts to the social security institutions and request the institutions to update the charts and send 2 copies of any documentation that would provide a better understanding of the social security program and thechanges that occurred in the prior 2 years; request responses from countries, and through follow up requests of nonrespondents, attempt to obtain responses to allow for publication in 1997; furnish a copy of the updated charts and any accompanying documentationon a continuing basis until completion; and provide electronic versions of charts that have been translated into French, German, or Spanish. We are aware of only one organization, the International Social Security Association (ISSA), that is capable and has fulfilled our requirements in the past. This synopsis is an invitation to other interested qualified firms (who can satisfy our requirements) to submit capability statements with data on social security programs. In addition, qualified firms seeking consideration must have demonstrated capabilities in: (1) onsite research at the international level in the field of social security developments and trends; (2) designing and implementing a research survey using specific questions to obtain information from approximately 170 individual country social security institutions concerning program changes; (3) analyzing and preparing the data from the 170 countries on program changes in a manner comparable with SSA needs; (4) foreign language capabilities in all three mentioned languages including technical expertise in the specialized vocabularies of social security; (5) established contacts with foreign social security institutions in the industrialized as well as developing countries; (6) the ability to collect and assess current operational data and documentation on each of the various programs in each of the 170 countries; and (7) technical ability to produce searchable electronic data filesthat will be easily accessible by the U.S. Social Security Administration with on-site equipment and/or local dial-in means such as on Internet or CD-ROM. Organizations that believe that they have the required expertise and specific capabilities should submit complete documentation of their experience. Organizations which fail to submit the required documentation will not receive further consideration. Additionally, responses which incorporate general capability type literature, but fail to specifically address the experience and capability requirements will also be judged unacceptable. The information respondents provide shall pertain to the synopsis only. Cross referencing to material previously submited is not recommended. No cost or pricing data is requested. This is not a request for proposal and the Government does not intend to pay for the information received. Respondents will not be notified of the results of the evaluation. Responses are to be mailed in sufficient time in order to be received by 3:00 p.m. local time on the 15th calendar day after publication of this notice. (0284)

Loren Data Corp. http://www.ld.com (SYN# 0020 19951012\B-0008.SOL)