Award and Administration of Multiple Award Contracts for Services at U.S. Army Medical Research Acquisition Activity Need Improvement

摘要

We reviewed U.S. Army Medical Research Acquisition Activity (USAMRAA) task orders issued under multiple award contracts (MACs) for services to determine whether they were properly competed among all awardees and whether contracting officers' representatives (CORs) performed adequate oversight, including reviewing invoices. We reviewed 20 task orders valued at about $235.1 million. USAMRAA contracting officials generally provided fair opportunity to compete for task orders awarded under MACs. However, USAMRAA contracting officials did not prepare adequate justifications for the use of sole-source procurements on three task orders, valued at $8.7 million, because contracting officials relied on the logical follow-on exception without verifying if the exceptions were valid. In addition, contracting officials did not prepare adequate fair and reasonable price determinations on two task orders awarded with only one proposal, valued at $35.4 million, because they relied on inadequate independent government cost estimates when determining price reasonableness. As a result, USAMRAA had no assurance that the Government obtained the best value when issuing the five task orders. The CORs did not perform adequate surveillance on 19 task orders reviewed. Specifically, quality assurance surveillance plans (QASP) were either nonexistent or inadequate, and the CORs did not maintain evidence of written approval for deliverables. In addition, the CORs approved six invoices containing unsupported other direct costs (ODCs) totaling $139,916. This occurred because contracting officers and CORs did not understand QASP requirements. As a result, USAMRAA had no assurance that services acquired were being rendered fully as agreed to in the task orders or that contractors were not overpaid.