Decennial Census

Minicomputer Procurement Delays and Bid Protests: Effects on the 1990 Census Gao ID: GGD-88-70 June 14, 1988

In response to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the Census Bureau's procurement of minicomputers specifically for the 1990 decennial census to determine the: (1) causes and effects of procurement delays; and (2) reasons for a bid protest and whether its settlement was reasonable and justified.

GAO found that the Bureau: (1) delayed its procurement of the minicomputers for 6 months because it was unable to justify its system compatibility requirement; (2) did not adequately identify its data processing needs for the minicomputers; (3) lacked adequate documentation to meet the requirement for a contingency plan in case the system failed to function properly; and (4) failed to timely obtain the needed procurement authority from the General Services Administration. GAO also found that the: (1) Department of Commerce and the Bureau paid three firms that protested the Bureau's bid rejections a total of $1.1 million in compensation because they believed they could not afford the time to resolve the protest; (2) Bureau's failure to properly plan for and manage the procurement created the time constraints; and (3) Bureau leased computer time from another agency at a cost of $3 million because of procurement delays and bid protests.

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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