To Provide Policies, Methods, Criteria for the Acquisition of Property and Services by Executive Agencies

The purpose of S. 1264 (95th Cong.) is to consolidate and reform the basic laws presently controlling federal procurement and to replace them with a single, all-inclusive statute. The bill provides for: putting negotiation on an equal footing with formal advertising without written justification; significantly increasing the use of performance type rather than detailed specifications; requiring certified cost and pricing data for sole-source procurements over $10,000; and waiving various surveillance requirements over contractors' activities. The surveillance requirements should not be waived because, although a contractor's business operations may consist of 75 percent or more commercial and competitive government contracts, there is no assurance that the other 25 percent or less of government contracts is being conducted in a manner to protect the government's interest. Cost Accounting Standards do not constitute a government surveillance requirement having an effect on performance of contracts. The provision for executive agency examinations to verify cost data should be altered to provide that examinations be conducted "only when necessary to ensure contract performance and/or to evaluate the accuracy, completeness, and currency of data certified under section 305 of the bill." The requirement for purchase descriptions may unduly inhibit the use of definitive specifications in situations where the benefits of standardization outweigh the advantages of such descriptions.