Natick Contracting Division's Management of Noncompetitive Awards Was Generally Justified

Our objective was to determine whether DoD noncompetitive contract awards were properly justified as sole source. The audit reviewed contracts issued by the U.S. Army Contracting Command -- Aberdeen Proving Ground, Natick Contracting Division (NCD). We reviewed 22 contracts, valued at about $31.6 million, that NCD contracting personnel awarded in FY 2009 and FY 2010. NCD contracting personnel adequately justified contracts as sole source for 21 of the 22 noncompetitive contracts. However, contracting personnel did not provide adequate justification for the noncompetitive award of one contract, valued at about $265,000. This occurred because contracting personnel did not conduct market research or adequately discuss in the justification and approval (J&A) why market research was not conducted, and they did not obtain approval of the J&A before awarding the noncompetitive contract. In addition, NCD contracting personnel did not include one or both of the statements required in 10 of the 22 contracts to ensure that interested sources were aware of actions they could take if interested in competing for noncompetitive contracts. As a result, NCD contracting personnel may have been able to award the noncompetitive contract using full and open competition. Also, NCD contracting personnel may have been able to award the contract at a lower price if additional market research had been conducted and multiple sources had been available to meet the Government's needs. Because NCD contracting personnel did not include the statements required by Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) 5.207, interested sources may not have been aware of actions they could have taken to compete for the awards. However, overall, NCD contracting personnel generally complied with content requirements in FAR 6.303-2, obtained approval from the proper official as required by FAR 6.304 for the 22 J&As, and had an approved J&A before awarding 21 noncompetitive contracts as required by FAR 6.303.