State Department

Procurement of Household Furnishings for Personnel Overseas Gao ID: NSIAD-89-136 May 22, 1989

Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the Department of State's selection criteria to determine if State awarded its current household furniture contract for overseas diplomatic posts appropriately and in a manner consistent with other agencies' furniture procurement.

GAO found that: (1) State awarded its current furniture contract based on highly subjective criteria, rather than cost; (2) State officials could not fully support their reasons for emphasizing factors other than cost in their evaluation criteria; (3) other federal agencies have typically awarded furniture contracts on the basis of criteria that emphasized cost as the primary factor; and (4) the current State contract will cost the government as much as $8 million more over the life of the contract than if cost had been the primary basis for award.

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