Administration of Contracts for Shipments of Personal Property

The practices and procedures for soliciting bids for services required incident to moving personal effects of military personnel to and from three installations in Colorado were reviewed. Procurement regulations state that when a requirement does not exist for a service included in the solicitation schedule, the statement "no requirement" will be added. Personnel responsible for transportation and traffic management functions at the three installations have been estimating requirements for services which they use regularly based on past experiences. Many of these requirements have been forecast when no known need existed. Since contracts are awarded to the lowest responsible bidder based on the overall price bid, experienced firms having knowledge that many services for which bids are solicited are seldom or never used have consistently bid "no charge" on the unused requirements, obtaining an edge over the competition. The problem of including unused or infrequently used requirements in solicitations should be brought to the attention of all personnel responsible for estimating requirements and soliciting bids.