Tax Systems Modernization: IRS Award to MITRE Corporation Violated the Competition in Contracting Act.
Abstract
This report comprises the results of a review of the Internal Revenue Service's (IRS) contract with the MITRE Corporation for engineering services to design the Tax Systems Modernization (TSM) program. The ability of IRS to direct and control its procurement activities is critically important to the success of the TSM program. The objective of TSM is to replace IRS' current antiquated tax processing system with a new system using modern technology. The objective of the review was to determine if the noncompetitive contract award to MITRE complied with requirements of the Competition In Contracting Act (CICA) concerning contracts awarded with less than full and open competition. Among the conclusions, is the finding that IRS violated CICA in making its noncompetitive award to MITRE, because planning to obtain competition on the MITRE contract should have started earlier. CICA does not allow agencies to justify contracting without full and open competition on the basis of a lack of advance planning. This was the case with the MITRE award. The noncompetitive award to MITRE might have been avoided had IRS conducted timely advance planning. Had IRS done this, the noncompetitive award to MITRE might have been avoided. Further, by making this award, IRS effectively put itself into a sole-source relationship with MITRE that resulted in a second, and potentially much larger, noncompetitive award. (RWJ)
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Mar 01, 1992
- Accession Number
- ADA291420
Entities
Organizations
- United States Government Accountability Office