An official website of the United States government
Here's how you know
A .mil website belongs to an official U.S. Department of Defense organization in the United States.
A lock (lock ) or https:// means you’ve safely connected to the .mil website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.

Report | July 29, 2015

Defense Information Systems Agency and Defense Logistics Agency Information Technology Contracts Awarded Without Competition Were Generally Justified

DODIG-2015-152

Objective

Our objective was to determine whether the Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) and Defense Logistics Agency (DLA) information technology (IT) contracts issued without competition were properly justified. This report is the fourth in a series of audits on IT contracts issued without competition. We nonstatistically reviewed 55 contracts.1

Finding

DLA, Contracting Services Office, Philadelphia, and DISA2 contracting personnel justified the use of other than full and open competition for 21 of the 22 sole‑source contracts with a value (including options) of about $505.8 million.  However, the DISA Defense Information Technology Contracting Organization, National Capital Region, (DITCO-NCR) contracting personnel did not properly justify the use of other than full and open competition for one sole-source  contract, valued at about $151 million. This occurred because the contracting officer inappropriately included  equipment on a sole-source contract for the convenience of the customers. As a result, DITCO-NCR contracting personnel could have used full and open competition to save DoD funds.

Additionally DISA contracting personnel did not follow the Federal Acquisition Regulation when they synopsized (summarized) 12 of 22 proposed contract actions. This occurred because DISA contracting personnel said they thought the correct exception was used, made mistakes when posting synopses, and could not find synopses or explain why they did not post synopses. As a result, for each of the proposed contract actions not properly synopsized, contracting personnel potentially excluded sources.

Finally, DLA, Contracting Services Office, Philadelphia, and DISA contracting personnel used a valid statutory requirement when they awarded the other 33 contracts with a value (including options) of about $82.1 million.

Recommendations

We recommend that the DISA Procurement Services Executive Chief, Defense Information Technology Contracting Organization, review the contracting practices at DITCO-NCR for the contract not properly justified and take action to remove the non-unique equipment and services as appropriate, require refresher training, and issue guidance that emphasizes Federal Acquisition Regulation Subpart 5.2, “Synopses of Proposed Contract Actions.”

Management Comments and Our Response

The DISA Procurement Services Executive Chief, Defense Information Technology Contracting Organization, agreed with the recommendations and provided a corrective action plan with an anticipated completion date. Comments from the DISA Procurement Services Executive addressed all specifics of the recommendations, and no further comments are required.


1 For 33 contracts, we limited our review to verifying whether the contracts contained a valid statutory requirement. The remaining 22 contracts required written justifications for other than full and open competition.

2 DISA collectively refers to Defense Information Technology Contracting Organization (DITCO), Scott Air Force Base, Illinois, and DITCO-National Capital Region (NCR), Fort Meade, Maryland.

This report is a result of Project No. D2015-D000CG-0121.000.