Objective
We determined whether the Marine Corps Regional Contracting Office–National Capital Region implemented the recommendations in Report No. DODIG-2015-095, “Small Business Contracting at Regional Contracting Office–National Capital Region Needs Improvement,” March 20, 2015. On October 6, 2015, the Marine Corps Regional Contracting Office–National Capital Region was renamed as Marine Corps Installations National Capital Region–Regional Contracting Office (MCINCR-RCO). We will use the new name throughout the report.
Finding
In Report No. DODIG-2015-095, we determined that MCINCR-RCO generally provided small businesses with the opportunity to compete for prime contracts; however, contracting officials did not ensure that prime contractors provided small businesses adequate subcontracting opportunities. We made four recommendations to the Director, MCINCR-RCO, to address deficiencies in overseeing contractors’ subcontracting goals and ensuring there are no missed opportunities to recoup damages when subcontracting goals are not met.
MCINCR-RCO contracting officials addressed all four recommendations in Report No. DODIG-2015-095 and, therefore, those recommendations will be closed.
Specifically, for three recommendations, MCINCR-RCO contracting officials:
- established policy requiring contracting officials to obtain adequate subcontracting plans from contractors when the Federal Acquisition Regulation requires subcontracting plans (Recommendation 1);
- established policy requiring contracting officials to verify that contractors submit the required subcontracting reports to the Electronic Subcontracting Reporting System (Recommendation 2); and
- provided training to ensure that contracting officials understand their Federal Acquisition Regulation subpart 19.7 responsibilities for evaluating and administering subcontracting plans (Recommendation 3).
For Recommendation 4, MCINCR-RCO contracting officials determined that the contractors for contracts M00264-08-D-0001 and M00264-13-C-0019 made good faith efforts to meet the small business subcontracting goals in their subcontracting plans; however, they did not support their good faith effort determination.
We obtained information directly from the Electronic Subcontracting Reporting System for contract M00264-13-C-0019 and from the contractor for contract M00264-08-D-0001 through MCINCR-RCO contracting officials. We determined that both contractors met their small business subcontracting goals. Therefore, no liquidated damages were due, and Recommendation 4 will be closed.
Management Comments
We provided a discussion draft of this report on July 14, 2016. No written response to this report was required, and none was received. Therefore, we are publishing this report in final form.
This report is a result of Project No. D2016-D000CF-0155.000.