The Department of Veterans Affairs should consider discontinuing the use of assisted acquisition interagency agreements with OPM for training conferences and establish controls to improve oversight of separately priced items purchased through existing assisted acquisitions with OPM, the VA inspector general has said.
It said the department spent about $15.5 million on three financial management training-conferences in 2010 and 2011, relying on an interagency agreement with OPM. However, the VA paid about $5.3 million out of $6.7 million spent for goods and services the prime vendor should not have purchased as “separately priced items,” the IG found.
It said that the VA and OPM instead should have identified essential goods and services and required the prime vendor to deliver them as firm fixed price tasks rather than as SPIs.
VA and OPM did not approve all SPI purchases in advance, and VA paid the prime vendor for SPIs and service fees without adequate supporting documentation, the IG said, adding that the VA paid the prime vendor about $697,000 in inappropriate service fees.
Further, it concluded that the VA paid OPM about $132,000 in service fees associated with inappropriate SPI purchases, and overall failed to establish adequate oversight.
The IG called on VA to ensure a qualified individual with appropriate training in contracting is assigned to all IAs and take action to recover service fees paid to the prime vendor and OPM that were inappropriate or associated with inadequate oversight.
