Defense Contracting: Complete Historical Data Not Available on Canceled DOD Solicitations
Abstract
The Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) generally requires that federal executive agencies seek competition for contracting opportunities by issuing solicitations. In certain instances, after notifying industry of its intent to purchase a certain good or service, the government may decide to cancel a solicitationthereby stopping the procurement process. The House report accompanying the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2016 included a provision for us to report on solicitations that the Department of Defense (DOD) canceled after receiving bids or proposals from industry between fiscal years 2010 and 2014. This report describes: 1) standards for canceling a solicitation, 2) availability of data on canceled DOD solicitations, and 3) the process available for reviewing complaints involving canceled DOD solicitations and examples of decisions involving those complaints. To describe the standards to cancel a solicitation, we reviewed the FAR and GAO bid protest decisions. To determine what information is available on canceled DOD solicitations, we reviewed government data systems and interviewed officials from the office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics. To identify examples of bid protest decisions involving canceled solicitations, we reviewed selected bid protest decisions issued in calendar years 2013 through 2015, and judgmentally selected a nongeneralizable sample of examples to illustrate a range of scenarios, including different contracting procedures. We conducted this performance audit from February 2016 to June 2016 in accordance with generally accepted government auditing standards. Those standards require that we plan and perform the audit to obtain sufficient, appropriate evidence to provide a reasonable basis for our findings and conclusions based on our audit objectives. We believe that the evidence obtained provides a reasonable basis for our findings and conclusions based on our audit object
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jun 29, 2016
- Accession Number
- AD1013843
Entities
People
- William T. Woods
Organizations
- United States Government Accountability Office