Procurement

Opportunities To Use More Preferred Practices for Base Support Contracts Gao ID: NSIAD-87-7 February 13, 1987

GAO reviewed the types of contracts, source selection evaluation criteria, and work statements that the Department of Defense (DOD) uses to award large multi-function or "umbrella" contracts for base support services to determine whether its contracting practices adhere to law, regulation, and policy.

GAO found that: (1) although most of the work was of a predictable nature, contracting officers often decided to use umbrella contracts, even though they were not the most advantageous method of meeting the government's needs; (2) contracting officers neither followed preferred practices in awarding umbrella contracts nor justified decisions to use umbrella contracts based on less-preferred contracting practices, rather than two or more smaller contracts; (3) significant portions of the routine base support work performed under cost reimbursement and fixed-price incentive contracts appeared suitable for firmer types of contracts; (4) the services awarded most umbrella contracts based on technical, rather than price, competition; and (5) DOD regulations did not require existing umbrella contract work statements to follow the concepts in the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) work statement guidance.

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.

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