Federal Contractors: Better Performance Information Needed to Support Agency Contract Award Decisions
GAO-09-374
Published: Apr 23, 2009. Publicly Released: May 22, 2009.
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Highlights
In fiscal year 2007, federal agencies worked with over 160,000 contractors, obligating over $456 billion, to help accomplish federal missions. This reliance on contractors makes it critical that agencies have the information necessary to properly evaluate a contractor's prior history of performance and better inform agencies' contract award decisions. 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 (PPIRS)--concerns remain about this information. This report assesses agencies' use of past performance information in awarding contracts; identifies challenges that hinder systematic sharing of past performance information; and describes efforts to improve contractor performance information. In conducting this work, GAO analyzed 62 contract solicitations from fiscal years 2007 and 2008 and met with 121 contracting officials. While the solicitations represent a range of contracts and contractors, GAO's findings cannot be generalized to all federal contracts.
Recommendations
Recommendations for Executive Action
| Agency Affected | Recommendation | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Office of Federal Procurement Policy | To facilitate governmentwide sharing and use of past performance information, the Administrator of the Office of Federal Procurement Policy (OFPP), in conjunction with agency chief acquisition officers should standardize evaluation factors and rating scales governmentwide for documenting contractor performance. |
In providing comments on this report, the agency concurred with this recommendation and recently took steps to implement it. The Office of Federal Procurement Policy in conjunction with the Acquisition Committee for eGovernment determined that the Contractor Performance Assessment Reporting System will be utilized as the single governmentwide past performance reporting system to collect and transmit performance evaluations to the Past Performance Information Retrieval System, thus providing for standardized evaluation factors and rating scales.
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| Office of Federal Procurement Policy | To facilitate governmentwide sharing and use of past performance information, the Administrator of the Office of Federal Procurement Policy (OFPP), in conjunction with agency chief acquisition officers should establish policy for documenting performance-related information that is currently not captured systematically across agencies, such as contract terminations for default and a prime contractor's management of its subcontractors. |
In providing comments on this report, the agency concurred with this recommendation and recently took steps to implement it. The Civilian Agency Acquisition Council and the Defense Acquisition Regulations Council issued a final rule amending the Federal Acquisition Regulation to establish procedures for contracting officers to provide terminations for cause or default into the Federal Awardee Performance and Integrity Information System. In addition, the Office of Federal Procurement Policy and the Acquisition Committee for eGovernment determined that the Contractor Performance Assessment Reporting System will be utilized as the single governmentwide past performance reporting system to collect contractor performance information, which includes information on the contractor's ability to manage subcontractors.
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| Office of Federal Procurement Policy | To facilitate governmentwide sharing and use of past performance information, the Administrator of the Office of Federal Procurement Policy (OFPP), in conjunction with agency chief acquisition officers should specify that agencies are to establish procedures and management controls, to include accountability, for documenting past performance in PPIRS. |
In response to these recommendations, OFPP issued final revisions to the FAR on July 1, 2009 aimed at improving past performance information including: (1) requiring agencies establish procedures for reporting past performance information and identify those responsible for preparing evaluations, and (2) requiring the input of past performance reports electronically into PPIRS. Subsequently, on July 29, 2009, OMB issued a memorandum to all Chief Acquisition Officers and Senior Procurement Officials (a) describing the new FAR requirements, (b) outlining associated management responsibilities and actions that they must take to support improved past performance reporting, and (c) establishing a new review that OFPP will use to further improve past performance reporting. The new review process is supposed to begin in February 2010.
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| Office of Federal Procurement Policy | To facilitate governmentwide sharing and use of past performance information, the Administrator of the Office of Federal Procurement Policy (OFPP), in conjunction with agency chief acquisition officers should define governmentwide roles and responsibilities for managing and overseeing PPIRS data. |
In providing comments on this report, the agency concurred with this recommendation and recently took steps to implement it. The Office of Federal Procurement Policy has taken on an increased oversight role for past performance information, and recently assessed agency's compliance with the requirement to document contractor performance as well as assessing the quality of past performance narratives. In addition, the Office of Federal Procurement Policy and the Acquisition Committee for eGovernment determined that the Defense Contractor Performance Assessment Reporting System will be utilized as the single governmentwide past performance reporting system. Oversight of this system will be through the General Services Administration's Integrated Acquisition Environment.
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| Office of Federal Procurement Policy | To facilitate governmentwide sharing and use of past performance information, the Administrator of the Office of Federal Procurement Policy (OFPP), in conjunction with agency chief acquisition officers should develop system tools and metrics for agencies to use in monitoring and managing the documenting of contractor performance, such as contracts requiring an evaluation and information on delinquent reports. |
In providing comments on this report, the agency concurred with this recommendation and recently took steps to implement it. The Office of Federal Procurement Policy and the Acquisition Committee for eGovernment determined that the Contractor Performance Assessment Reporting System will be utilized as the single past performance reporting system government-wide to collect contractor performance assessments. This system provides an interface with the Federal Procurement Data System - Next Generation which allows agencies to monitor their reporting for completeness and timeliness.
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| Office of Federal Procurement Policy | To facilitate governmentwide sharing and use of past performance information, the Administrator of the Office of Federal Procurement Policy (OFPP), in conjunction with agency chief acquisition officers should take appropriate action to finalize proposed changes to the Federal Aquisition Regulations that clarify responsibilities and performance documentation requirements for contract actions that involve orders placed against GSA's Multiple Award Schedule. |
OFPP issued final revisions to the FAR on July 1, 2009 aimed at improving past performance information including requiring performance assessments for orders against Multiple Award Schedule (MAS) and other agencies' contracts that exceed the reporting threshold.
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| Department of Homeland Security | To improve management and accountability for timely documenting of contractor past performance information at the agency level, the departments of Defense, Energy, Homeland Security, and NASA should establish management controls and appropriate management review of past performance evaluations as required and in line with any OFPP policy changes. |
In providing comments on this report, the Department concurred with the recommendation and recently took steps to implement it. In July 2009, the Office of Federal Procurement Policy issued a memorandum requiring agencies to establish internal procedures for collecting and reporting past performance information. Subsequently, the Department amended their acquisition manual to emphasize the importance of contractor past performance and initiated oversight processes and procedures to assess contractor performance assessments for timeliness and quality.
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| Department of Defense | To improve management and accountability for timely documenting of contractor past performance information at the agency level, the departments of Defense, Energy, Homeland Security, and NASA should establish management controls and appropriate management review of past performance evaluations as required and in line with any OFPP policy changes. |
In providing comments on this report, the Department concurred with the recommendation and recently took steps to implement it. In July 2009, the Office of Federal Procurement Policy issued a memorandum requiring agencies to establish internal procedures for collecting and reporting past performance information. Subsequently, the Department amended their acquisition manual to emphasize the importance of contractor past performance and initiated oversight processes and procedures to assess contractor performance assessments for timeliness and quality.
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| Department of Energy | To improve management and accountability for timely documenting of contractor past performance information at the agency level, the departments of Defense, Energy, Homeland Security, and NASA should establish management controls and appropriate management review of past performance evaluations as required and in line with any OFPP policy changes. |
In providing comments on this report, the department concurred with the recommendation and recently took steps to implement it. In July 2009, the Office of Federal Procurement Policy issued a memorandum requiring agencies to establish internal procedures for collecting and reporting past performance information. The Department migrated to the Contractor Performance Assessment Reporting System, which provides reports for managers and focal points to identify and track the status of performance assessments for their respective organization. In addition, the Department's acquisition guide was updated to set forth policy, assign roles and responsibilities, and provide procedures for evaluating contractor performance as required by Office of Federal Procurement Policy memo.
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| National Aeronautics and Space Administration | To improve management and accountability for timely documenting of contractor past performance information at the agency level, the departments of Defense, Energy, Homeland Security, and NASA should establish management controls and appropriate management review of past performance evaluations as required and in line with any OFPP policy changes. |
In providing comments on this report, the agency concurred with the recommendation and recently took steps to implement it. In July 2009, the Office of Federal Procurement Policy issued a memorandum requiring agencies to establish internal procedures for collecting and reporting past performance information. The Agency subsequently issued a Procurement Information Circular providing updated guidance for the use of NASA's Past Performance Database and establish more uniform Agency-wide compliance with the requirements set forth in the Office of Federal Procurement Policy memorandum. In addition, NASA established procedures to provide e-mail notifications to managers and supervisors for late or missing past performance evaluations.
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AccountabilityContract administrationContract performanceContracting officersContractorsContractsDefense procurementDepartment of Defense contractorsDocumentationEvaluation criteriaFederal agenciesFederal procurementFederal procurement policyFederal regulationsGovernment informationGovernment information disseminationInternal controlsPerformance measuresReporting requirementsSolicitationsSource selectionPerformance appraisalMultiple award procurementProcurement policyProcurement practicesProcurement recordsPolicies and procedures