DOD Components Are Not Sending Required Information on Contract Awards to the Office of Public Affairs
Gao ID: GAO-11-122R November 30, 2010
During the course of a recent engagement reviewing noncompetitive contracting, we found that departments and agencies in the Department of Defense (DOD) are not submitting complete information, as required, to the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs (OASD[PA]), which then posts the information on its Web site as a public announcement. President Obama has emphasized transparency and openness in how the government spends taxpayer dollars. We are bringing this issue to the attention of the Defense Department's Defense Procurement and Acquisition Policy due to its responsibility for acquisition and procurement policy matters in DOD. The Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) requires contracting officers to make information on a contract action over a certain dollar amount publicly available on the same day the contract is awarded. The Defense Federal Acquisition Regulation Supplement (DFARS) further specifies that for contract actions over $5.5 million, departments and agencies are to submit certain information to the OASD(PA) by the close of business the day before the date of the proposed award, including, "as a minimum" (1) contract data, for example, contract number, face value of the action and total cumulative face value of the contract, description of what is being bought, and contract type; (2) competition information, including number of solicitations mailed and number of bids received; (3) contractor data, such as name and place of performance; (4) funding data which include type of appropriation, fiscal year of the funds, and whether the contract is multiyear; and (5) miscellaneous data, such as the identification of the contracting office. According to officials at the OASD(PA), their practice is to post on their Web site the information they receive from the departments and agencies, making only minor editorial changes for style. They explained that the press, investors, and contractors all have an interest in DOD's contract awards and closely monitor the daily postings.
Our analysis revealed a pattern of contract award announcements that lacked the information required to be submitted to the OASD(PA) for one or more categories. Every military service and DOD agency that submitted a contract award announcement in August 2010 had at least one submission that did not meet the requirements. On the basis of this observation, we conducted a more detailed analysis of all 50 contract action announcements posted to the OASD(PA) Web site on August 6, 2010. We found that 48 of the announcements posted on August 6, 2010, or 96 percent, did not include one or more of the five specific categories of information. For example, none of the 5 Air Force award announcements included contract type, number of solicitations requested and bids received, or the fiscal year of the funds. None of the 42 Army announcements included the fiscal year of funds. In addition, 2 Army announcements lacked information on the number of bids received and the contracting office, and another did not include the contract type. The 3 Navy announcements on that day, however, generally included the five categories, with only 1 entry missing competition information. While the OASD(PA) processes the contract award announcements submitted from DOD agencies and the military services, OASD(PA) officials told us that, since OASD(PA) is a reporting and not a regulatory office, they only review the submissions for style and rely on each service or agency to ensure that the information submitted is correct and compliant with appropriate regulations. In not providing OASD(PA) with complete information on contract awards, DOD's departments and agencies are not complying with DFARS requirements. Without this information, OASD(PA) is not able to provide full transparency to the public on DOD's contract awards.
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:
John P. Hutton
Team:
Government Accountability Office: Acquisition and Sourcing Management
Phone:
(202) 512-7773
GAO-11-122R, DOD Components Are Not Sending Required Information on Contract Awards to the Office of Public Affairs
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GAO-11-122R:
United States Government Accountability Office:
Washington, DC 20548:
November 30, 2010:
Mr. Shay Assad:
Director, Defense Procurement and Acquisition Policy:
Department of Defense:
Subject: DOD Components Are Not Sending Required Information on
Contract Awards to the Office of Public Affairs:
During the course of a recent engagement reviewing noncompetitive
contracting,[Footnote 1] we found that departments and agencies in the
Department of Defense (DOD) are not submitting complete information,
as required, to the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for
Public Affairs (OASD[PA]), which then posts the information on its Web
site as a public announcement. President Obama has emphasized
transparency and openness in how the government spends taxpayer
dollars. We are bringing this issue to your attention due to your
responsibility for acquisition and procurement policy matters in DOD.
The Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) requires contracting officers
to make information on a contract action over a certain dollar amount
publicly available on the same day the contract is awarded. The
Defense Federal Acquisition Regulation Supplement (DFARS) further
specifies that for contract actions over $5.5 million, departments and
agencies are to submit certain information to the OASD(PA) by the
close of business the day before the date of the proposed award,
including, "as a minimum"[Footnote 2]:
(1) contract data, for example, contract number, face value of the
action and total cumulative face value of the contract, description of
what is being bought, and contract type;[Footnote 3]
(2) competition information, including number of solicitations mailed
and number of bids received;
(3) contractor data, such as name and place of performance;
(4) funding data which include type of appropriation, fiscal year of
the funds, and whether the contract is multiyear; and:
(5) miscellaneous data, such as the identification of the contracting
office.[Footnote 4]
According to officials at the OASD(PA), their practice is to post on
their Web site the information they receive from the departments and
agencies, making only minor editorial changes for style.F[Footnote 5]F
They explained that the press, investors, and contractors all have an
interest in DOD's contract awards and closely monitor the daily
postings.
To obtain greater insight into the extent to which DOD military
services and agencies are providing the OASD(PA) the information
required by the DFARS, we analyzed the contract award announcements on
the OASD(PA) Web site for the month of August 2010, focusing on the
following specific information pertaining to each of the five required
categories:
* contract type (contract data category),
* number of solicitations requested and bids received (competition
information category),
* name and location of the contractor (contractor data category),
* fiscal year of the funds (funding data category) and:
* the contracting office (miscellaneous data category).
Results:
Our analysis revealed a pattern of contract award announcements that
lacked the information required to be submitted to the OASD(PA) for
one or more categories. Every military service and DOD agency that
submitted a contract award announcement in August 2010 had at least
one submission that did not meet the requirements. On the basis of
this observation, we conducted a more detailed analysis of all 50
contract action announcements posted to the OASD(PA) Web site on
August 6, 2010.
We found that 48 of the announcements posted on August 6, 2010, or 96
percent, did not include one or more of the five specific categories
of information. For example, none of the 5 Air Force award
announcements included contract type, number of solicitations
requested and bids received, or the fiscal year of the funds. None of
the 42 Army announcements included the fiscal year of funds. In
addition, 2 Army announcements lacked information on the number of
bids received and the contracting office, and another did not include
the contract type. The 3 Navy announcements on that day, however,
generally included the five categories, with only 1 entry missing
competition information.
While the OASD(PA) processes the contract award announcements
submitted from DOD agencies and the military services, OASD(PA)
officials told us that, since OASD(PA) is a reporting and not a
regulatory office, they only review the submissions for style and rely
on each service or agency to ensure that the information submitted is
correct and compliant with appropriate regulations.
Conclusion:
In not providing OASD(PA) with complete information on contract
awards, DOD's departments and agencies are not complying with DFARS
requirements. Without this information, OASD(PA) is not able to
provide full transparency to the public on DOD's contract awards.
Recommendation for Executive Action:
We recommend that the Director, Defense Procurement and Acquisition
Policy, instruct the departments and agencies to provide complete
information on contract announcements over $5.5 million to the
OASD(PA), consistent with DFARS requirements.
Agency Comments and Our Evaluation:
We provided a draft of this report to DOD. In comments provided via
email, the Director, Defense Procurement and Acquisition Policy,
concurred with the recommendation, stating that his office will issue
a memorandum to DOD contracting officers reminding them of their
responsibilities to include complete information when notifying the
Office of Public Affairs of contract announcements. In addition, his
office will conduct periodic checks of the information provided to the
Office of Public Affairs by DOD departments and agencies.
Scope and Methodology:
To determine the extent to which DOD departments and agencies are
providing the Office of Assistant Secretary of Defense for Public
Affairs (OASD[PA])with complete information as required in DFARS
205.303 (a)(ii)(D), we analyzed a sample of contract award
announcements from the archives on the DOD Web site [hyperlink,
http://www.defense.gov/contracts/]. According to officials from
OASD(PA), their practice is to post the information they receive to
this Web site. Our analysis included a high-level review of all
announcements posted to the Web site in August 2010 and a more
detailed analysis of announcements posted on August 6, 2010, to
examine patterns of compliance or noncompliance with selected elements
from each of the five required categories. Specifically, we looked for
information on:
* contract type (contract data category),
* number of solicitations requested and bids received (competition
information category),
* name and location of the contractor (contractor data category),
* fiscal year of the funds (funding data category), and:
* the contracting office (miscellaneous data category).
We also reviewed pertinent sections of the FAR and DFARS. We
interviewed DOD officials from the OASD(PA) and Defense Procurement
and Acquisition Policy and discussed the requirements in DFARS 205.303
with an official from DOD's legal counsel. We conducted our review
from September to November 2010 in accordance with generally accepted
government auditing standards. Those standards require that we plan
and perform the audit to obtain sufficient, appropriate evidence to
provide a reasonable basis for our findings and conclusions based on
our audit objectives. We believe that the evidence obtained provides a
reasonable basis for our findings and conclusions based on our audit
objectives.
We are sending copies of this report to the Assistant Secretary of
Defense (Public Affairs) and interested congressional committees. In
addition, the report will be available at no charge on GAO's Web site
at [hyperlink, http://www.gao.gov]. If you have any questions, please
contact me at (202) 512-4841 or huttonj@gao.gov. Contact points for
our Offices of Congressional Relations and Public Affairs may be found
on the last page of this letter.
Key contributors to this report were Michele Mackin, Assistant
Director; Tatiana Winger; Jared Sippel; Scott Purdy; Kenneth Patton;
and Sylvia Schatz.
Signed by:
John P. Hutton:
Director:
Acquisition and Sourcing Management:
[End of section]
Footnotes:
[1] GAO, Federal Contracting: Opportunities Exist to Increase
Competition and Assess Reasons When Only One Offer Is Received,
[hyperlink, http://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-10-833] (Washington, D.C.:
July 26, 2010).
[2] FAR 5.303, Announcement of contract awards. The FAR requires that
information be provided on contracts over $3.5 million unless another
amount is specified in agency acquisition regulation. DFARS
205.303(a)(i) requires public announcement of all contractual actions,
including modifications, that have a face value (excluding unexercised
options) of more than $5.5 million. DFARS 205.303(a)(ii) directs
departments and agencies to submit certain information on the contract
actions to the OASD(PA).
[3] Contract types that may be used in acquisitions are defined in FAR
Part 16 and include fixed-price, time-and-materials, or cost-
reimbursement.
[4] According to DFARS 205.303(a)(ii)(D)(5), other types of
miscellaneous data include known congressional interest and the
information release date.
[5] See [hyperlink, http://www.defense.gov/contracts].
[End of section]
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