NASA flagged for not competing orders

Audit of Multiple-award Contracts at NASA

The Defense Department is not the only federal agency under fire for not properly putting task orders out for bid. An audit released this month by the NASA inspector general found that 51 of 104 contracts issued by the Johnson Space Center and Langley Research Center were sole-sourced orders. Although officials did not violate any laws, they did not follow regulatory requirements and instead used multiple-award contracts to direct business to specific vendors.

"The agency did not receive the benefits of competitive bids and may be paying more for goods and services than necessary," according to the report, which is dated Sept. 28 but was released Oct. 19.

The NASA IG recommends that NASA managers establish competition goals for multiple-award contracts and that officials at Langley and Johnson direct contracting officers to "fairly consider all contractors who submit bids for orders under multiple-award contracts."

In reponse to the IG report, NASA procurement officials said that although they agree with the recommendations, the orders cited in the report represent an "effort that was begun, but not completed, on prior contracts." To put those orders out for bid would have "potentially amounted to meaningless competitions, since the initial contractor would have had an unfair competitive advantage due to their prior work."