Competition in Contracting

Competition is the Government's preferred method for contracting. In fact, for most Governmental agencies, internal justification must be prepared for procurements not based on competition. Have you ever wondered about the Government's scorecard for awarding contracts based on competition versus other contracting methods (like negotiated procurements)? Well, we doubt that question and its answer is foremost on anyone's mind. But, the Department of Defense tracks such information and recently published the results for the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2015.

The Department's fiscal year 2015 goal was to achieve a contracting by competition rate of 59 percent (in terms of dollars). During the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2015, the Department achieved only 55 percent competitively awarded contracts.

Within that data, the Air Force and Navy fell short, at 39 and 43 percent respectively. That's understandable as the Air Force and Navy buy large ticket items where the competitive market is limited. Defense Logistics Agency achieved a competition rate of 83 percent which is somewhat indicative of the common items the Agency tends to buy. The United States Transportation Command was the winner at 99 percent competitively awarded contracts.

The report did not analyze why the various agencies fell short of their goals. It did report that it will continue to emphasize the importance of competition at various levels.

To read the entire report, click here.