Acquisition Reform: Multiple-Award Contracting at Six Federal Organizations

摘要

Concerned that federal agencies were avoiding competitive requirements when ordering under task- or delivery-order contracts, Congress, through the Federal Acquisition Streamlining Act (FASA), directed agencies to consider awarding multiple contracts-rather than a single contract--when a task- -or delivery-order contract format was planned. You asked us to determine (1) whether federal agencies were providing a fair opportunity for contractors to receive orders under multiple-award contracts, (2) how service fees assessed on interagency orders compared with agencies' costs to process such orders, and (3) if multiple-award contracts affected federal contracting opportunities for small businesses. As agreed, we reviewed a selected group of multiple-award contracts awarded by six federal organizations to acquire, among other things, information technology services, desktop and portable personal computer systems and related equipment and software, and general repairs and alterations for federal offices. We examined multiple-award contracts administered by six organizations-the Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA), the Department of Transportation (DOT), the General Services Administration (GSA), the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and the U.S. Air Force (USAF) Electronic Systems Center's Hanscom Air Force Base operations (ESc/HAFB) and Standard Systems Group (SSG). More information on the contracts we reviewed, as well as the scope and methodology of our work, is found in appendix I.