Agencies are using significantly more blanket purchase agreements but GAO has said they are missing out on opportunities to save money by leveraging competition.
Under the Federal Acquisition Regulation, or FAR, agencies can establish BPAs through GSA’s schedules program through which contracts are awarded to multiple vendors for commercial goods and services and made available for agency use – and by which funds are obligated when orders are placed.
Contracting officers use BPAs for flexibility and speed, and the use of BPAs among civilian agencies grew 475 percent faster than their overall services contracting from 2004 to 2008, according to GAO-09-792.
Of the agreements GAO reviewed, 64 percent had been competed when established, and for many of those that had not been competed, contracting officers provided justifications that were inconsistent with sound procurement policy.
Most of the agreements had been awarded to a single vendor, which resulted in a lack of competition when placing orders because the FAR does not currently require competition of orders under single award BPAs, said GAO.
It said multiple award BPAs – awarded to more than one vendor for the same requirement – provide an opportunity to benefit from further competition when placing orders, but many contracting officers placed orders directly with one vendor without further competition.
Agencies need to ask for discounts, GAO said. It found no evidence that agencies sought discounts when 47 percent of the BPAs reviewed were established.
Congress recently enhanced competition requirements for multiple award contracts, but the application of this requirement to schedule BPAs has not yet been established, said GAO.
It called on the administrator of the Office of Federal Procurement Policy to amend the FAR to clarify when establishing a schedule BPA using the limited source justifications is appropriate, as well as to take steps to require federal agencies to put procedures in place to ensure that annual reviews are conducted.
