Competition is the “cornerstone of a sound acquisition process” and a vital tool for offering taxpayers the best return on investment, but the competition rate at the Defense Department has been slipping over the past five fiscal years, a Government Accountability Office report says.
The DoD’s competition rate for all competed contracts declined over the past five fiscal years, “from 62.6 percent in FY 2008 to 57.1 in FY 2012,” said the March 28 report GAO-13-325.
In FY 2012, auditors found the Air Force had the lowest competition rate at 37.1 percent, and the Defense Logistics Agency had the highest at 83.3 percent.
GAO recommends that “DoD identify, track and consider the specific factors that affect competition when setting competition goals; develop guidance to apply lessons learned from past procurements to help achieve competition in the future; and collect reliable data on one-offer awards.”
Most of the non-competitive awards cited said there was only one responsible source to meet the government’s needs as the reason for the non-competitive award.
GAO also took a look at a 2010 requirement DoD created to address risk reduction in competitive awards that only receive one offer.
GAO analyzed 35 one-offer awards and found contracting officers had incorrectly coded 10 of the awards in DoD procurement databases used to measure the impact of the new requirement. Six of the 10 awards were non-competitive; the remaining four received multiple offers. The report said auditors determined DOD data can’t be used to accurately calculate the amount obligated on one-offer awards during FY 2012, and without reliable data DoD can’t measure the impact of its new requirement.
Some of GAO’s recommendations are pending review and GAO expects to provide updates when actions are taken.