GSA Use of Advertised and Negotiated Contracts for New Construction and Major Repair and Alterations

A recent analysis of the General Services Administration's (GSA) contract awards for construction and major repairs and alterations of buildings raised questions about the sufficiency of competition in the awards. From 1974 through 1976, 324 new construction contracts were awarded totalling $335 million, and 1,610 contracts for major repairs and alterations were awarded totalling about $177 million. About 13 percent of all contracts were awarded through negotiation in addition to those negotiated as small business set-asides. In formally advertised procurements, a large percentage of awards were made after receiving only one or two bids. After allegations were made of abuses in GSA contracting activities, GSA started internal surveys of procurement management and took or planned corrective actions, including formation of a task force to perform investigations and make recommendations. The task force should consider information supplied by GAO and should cover efforts of the procurement offices to obtain competition and the reasonableness of the justifications for using negotiated procurement.