Inquiry Concerning Denial of Contracts to Low Offerer for Army Translation Services

Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO was asked to investigate allegations as to whether a constituent's low bids for translation work were regularly passed over; whether the constituent was denied contracts without explanation; and whether there was any evidence of fraud, conflict of interest, deception, or improper circumvention of Army procurement regulations.

GAO found that procurement regulations relative to obtaining competition were not followed in awarding purchase orders for the services in question. Orders were issued on the basis of rates quoted in basic ordering agreements but not necessarily to the contractor offering the lowest rate. The constituent was not solicited or considered for award even though the rate listed in his basic ordering agreement was the lowest of all the rates included in the contractors' basic ordering agreements. GAO found no evidence that the contracting agency had provided the constituent with an explanation for this action. GAO also found no evidence of fraud, conflict of interest, or deception.

Recommendations

Our recommendations from this work are listed below with a Contact for more information. Status will change from "In process" to "Open," "Closed - implemented," or "Closed - not implemented" based on our follow up work.

Director: No director on record Team: No team on record Phone: No phone on record