To facilitate government-wide sharing and use of past performance information the Office of Federal Procurement Policy in conjunction with agency chief acquisition officers should standardize evaluation factors and rating scales government wide for documenting contractor performance, GAO has said.
In a report calling for better performance information to support contract award decisions, it said that in fiscal 2007 agencies worked with over 160,000 contractors, obligating over $456 billion.
While actions have been taken to improve the sharing of past performance information and its use – including the development of the Past Performance Information Retrieval System – concerns remain about this information, according to GAO-09-374.
It said contracting officials are often reluctant to rely on past performance information as it is sometimes viewed as unreliable or irrelevant.
Contracting officials agreed that for past performance information to be useful for sharing, it must be documented, relevant, and reliable, but GAO found PPIRS data for fiscal 2006 and 2007 to be frequently undocumented.
Some officials told GAO that a lack of accountability and lack of system tools and metrics made it difficult for managers to ensure timely performance reports, and variations in evaluation and rating factors have also limited the usefulness of past performance information.
GAO also cited a lack of central oversight and management of PPIRS data, arguing it has hindered efforts to address these and other shortcomings, adding that efforts to improve PPIRS have been insufficient.