Contract Reform: DOE Has Made Progress, but Actions Needed to Ensure Initiatives Have Improved Results

摘要

The Department of Energy (DOE), the largest civilian-contracting agency in the federal government, relies primarily on contractors to operate its sites and carry out its diverse missions, such as maintaining the nuclear weapons stockpile, cleaning up radioactive and hazardous wastes, and performing research. To carry out these missions, DOE often contracts for designing, constructing, and operating multimillion-dollar, one-of-a-kind facilities. For fiscal year 2001, DOE spent about 90 percent of its total annual budget, or $18.2 billion, on contracts. Of that amount, DOE spent about $16.2 billion on contracts to manage or operate 28 DOE sites. DOE's contracting activities are governed by federal law and regulations, including the Federal Acquisition Regulation and the Department of Energy Acquisition Regulation (DEAR). Although federal law generally requires federal agencies to use competition in selecting a contractor, until the mid-1990s, DOE contracts for the management and operation of its sites generally fit within an exception that allowed for the use of noncompetitive procedures.