About | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline
LOG IN
LOG IN

PLRD-82-14 1 (1981-10-20)

handle is hein.gao/gaobabcpt0001 and id is 1 raw text is: UNITED STATES GENERAL ACCOUNTING OFFICE I V. C WASHINGTON, D.C. 20548 PRO@UINM LOWUIC8N AMQ nfA~pN. DrIVIwO October 20, 1981 B-205228 1111 iiI The Honorable Carl Levin 116803 United States Senate Dear Senator Levin: Subject: Comments on Senator Levin's Proposed Amendment to the Fiscal Year 1982 Defense Authorization Act (PLRD 82-14) This report is in response to your letter dated October 15, 1981, requesting our views on your amendment to the Fiscal Year 1982 Defense Authorization Act, Senate bill 815. Conceptually, we agree with the objectives of the amendment, that is, restricting the Department of Defense's (DOD's) use of sole- source, noncompetitive contracting. In our opinion, section 908(a) has merit and would increase opportunities for competition because tt would require that offers be considered even when a sole-source award is anticipated. We have found instances where DOD's (as well as various civil agencies') notices in the Commerce Business Daily stipulate that an agency will not accept or consider proposals because the decision has been made to award the contract on a sole-source basis. This has resulted in sole-source awards where competition was feasible. Except in unusual circumstances, we believe agencies should publicize prospective awards to determine if competition is available, rather than reach a sole-source decision before interested potential contractors have been given notice and an opportunity to be considered. Our primary concern is with certain provisions of section 908 (b)(2) that identify the circumstances under which contracts would be exempt from the requirements to publicize notices of prospective awards. We noticed that while certain exempt situations in your amendment are currently exempted from the publicizing requirement by the Defense Acquisition Regulation 1-1003, your amendment is unclear and has the possibility of being misinterpreted as increas- ing the number of exemptions. We believe that several exempt situations are highly undesir- able since they are likely to decrease attention to competitive possibilities. Our specific problems concern section 908(b)(2)(F), (K), (L), and (N) and section 908(d). Item (F) exempts contracts for personal or professional serv- ices in an amount less than $500,000. We have found many noncom- petitive contracts for studies that could have been performed by other equally qualified researchers. Publication of these proposed contracts will alert other potential sources and may illustrate 0 1 11 ) (990516)

What Is HeinOnline?

HeinOnline is a subscription-based resource containing thousands of academic and legal journals from inception; complete coverage of government documents such as U.S. Statutes at Large, U.S. Code, Federal Register, Code of Federal Regulations, U.S. Reports, and much more. Documents are image-based, fully searchable PDFs with the authority of print combined with the accessibility of a user-friendly and powerful database. For more information, request a quote or trial for your organization below.



Contact us for annual subscription options:

Contact Us

Already a HeinOnline Subscriber?

Log In

profiles profiles most