Defense Contracts: DOD Should Develop a Strategy for Assessing Contract Award Time Frames
Abstract
DOD's contracting process is designed to protect taxpayers' interests, among other things, and can take time. DOD leadership and contractors have expressed concern about the length of time to award contracts and DOD has proposed reducing that time. GAO was asked to evaluate the length of time to award weapon systems contracts. This report examines (1) DOD's efforts to determine the time it takes to award contracts; (2) data on the time interval from solicitation to contract award for selected contracts; and (3) factors identified as contributing to contract award time frames. GAO used the Federal Procurement Data System-Next Generation to identify new weapon systems-related contracts awarded in fiscal years 2014 through 2016, valued over $5 million, among other factors. GAO selected a nongeneralizable sample of 129 contracts at four DOD components with the highest total dollar value and highest number of contracts from those fiscal years for further analysis. GAO analyzed contract documentation and surveyed contracting officials on a subset of contracts to determine the factors affecting the time between solicitation issuance and award.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jul 16, 2018
- Accession Number
- AD1157207
Entities
People
- Abby Volk
- Anh Nguyen
- Bonita Oden
- Carol Mebane
- David Ballard
- Gina Hoover
- Jenny Shinn
- Julia Kennon
- Kurt Gurka
- Lorraine Ettaro
- Penny Berrier
- Peter Anderson
- Robin Wilson
- Sonja Bensen
- William T. Woods
Organizations
- United States Government Accountability Office