Allegations of an Inappropriate Army Sole-Source Award for Commercial Construction Equipment.

Abstract

The objective was to assess the appropriateness of and justification for the Army's decision to buy construction equipment from Caterpillar Tractor Company on a sole-source basis. To accomplish our objective, we reviewed (1) Army procurement regulations and policy concerning sole-source procurements, (2) the proposed contract and support files at TACOM and the industry correspondence files maintained by the Military Equipment Research and Development Command (MERADCOM) at Fort Belvoir, Virginia, and (3) cost data, parts commnality information, and industry worldwide support capabilities. In addition, we interviewed TACOM, MERADCOM, and construction equipment industry officials. We found that several other suppliers could have furnished the equipment and that the Army had ample opportunities to solicit this procurement competitively. By using a 'fleet-buy' concept (restricting consideration only to those firms that could manufacture all of the desired pieces of equipment), the Army eliminated several potential suppliers.

Open PDF

Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Oct 15, 1981
Accession Number
ADA108459

Entities

Organizations

  • United States Government Accountability Office

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Air Platforms
  • Human Systems
  • Weapons Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Air Force
  • Army Equipment
  • Army Procurement
  • Commonality
  • Construction
  • Construction Equipment
  • Contracts
  • Deployment
  • Military Acquisition
  • Military Equipment
  • Procurement
  • Rapid Deployment
  • Spare Parts
  • Specifications
  • Training
  • United States
  • Vehicles

Readers

  • Government Contracting/Procurement.
  • Industrial Economics
  • Technical Research and Report Writing.