OMB has issued a memo requesting that agencies increase the use of competition when placing task and delivery orders under indefinite-delivery vehicles.
Office of Federal Procurement Policy administrator, Paul Denett, said agencies were not taking full advantage of tools to facilitate the efficient and effective use of competition to do so.
Task and delivery orders under existing contracts have shot up in recent years, to over $200 billion in fiscal 2005 from about $100 billion in 2002.
The federal procurement data system shows that agency expenditures through orders under contracts have grown significantly, from approximately 14 percent of total dollars obligated in fiscal 1990 to about 52 percent of total dollars obligated in fiscal 2005.
"Inadequate planning, insufficient market research, and poor coordination among program and acquisition offices lead to ill-defined requirements, lack of head-to-head competition for task-specific solutions and pricing, and the absence of meaningful performance standards to measure results," according to the memo.
It calls agencies to work with their designated competition advocates to evaluate competition practices and develop plans and goals for maximizing them.
These advocates should provide a written report to their agencies with analysis and recommendations by December 20 and annually thereafter, and agencies have been asked to provide a copy of the first report to OFPP.
