Use of Credit Earned on One Contract to Offset Cost of Another

A Contracting Officer, Department of Agriculture, requested a decision on the legality of using credits accrued from food stamp sales receipts deposited in commercial "concentration" banks under contracts with Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) to offset cost of another FNS contract for data collection. Credit on one contract may not be applied to offset cost of another contract, even though both contracts are necessary to same FNS program objective.