Competition of DoD Contracts Increases in FY 2008

In the Department of Defense’s (DoD) March 4th report to the Office of Management and Budget, the Department states that $252 billion, or 64 percent, of all DoD dollars awarded through contracts were competitively awarded.  This was an increase over its 10-year average of 61 percent and exceeds the prior high of 63 percent. This stands in stark contrast to some perceptions that competition levels have decreased in federal contracting. Of the $340.5 billion reported in the Government-wide Federal Procurement Data System (FPDS) Competition Report as being competitively-awarded dollars, 74 percent was awarded by DoD.

By definition, dollars awarded under Multiple Award Contracts (MACs) are not considered “full and open” competitions, because vendors have previously been deemed winners after a competitive bidding process, but individual task orders are competitively bid and awarded amongst that previously-selected group of vendors. In other words, although not “full and open,” these procurements are highly competitive.

Any exception to the requirement to provide a fair opportunity for all qualified vendors to compete for orders placed under MACs must be approved at the same levels required for Justifications and Approvals for sole source contracts.  In FY 2008, 83.7 percent of DoD dollars obligated through MACs was done through fair opportunity/competitive procedures.

To read the report in full, please click here: http://www.acq.osd.mil/dpap/cpic/cp/docs/dodfy2008competitionreport.pdf.