Defense Dept. to Push Competition for Services The Defense Department will “focus on competition” in contracting for services, said Shay Assad, director of defense procurement and acquisition policy. Separately, Democratic senators introduced legislation that would sharply limit the use of sole source contracts. “The fundamental underpinning of where we’re trying to go is pretty simple,” Assad told an audience of contractors Feb. 13, “…we want competition whenever we can get it.” “We are going to make it more difficult to award sole source services contracts,” he added. “We are not going down that road.” Services now account for about half of DOD’s more than $300 million procurement budget. Assad signaled that one approach will be more large, multiple award task order contracts such as the Navy’s Seaport-e. “Seaport is a best practice,” he said at the forum sponsored by the Coalition for Government Procurement in Arlington, VA. The Naval Sea Systems Command said it has awarded more than 650 contracts for 29 types of services under Seaport-e. The vast majority of the contractors are small businesses. Seaport-e is a Web-based system that awards up to $5.3 billion in task orders every year, according to a Navy press release. (See www.seaport.navy.mil.) Assad indicated DOD may create more vehicles like it. If there were an “Airport” contract, for example, he said Seaport contractors should be automatically allowed to compete on that vehicle rather than go through a separate competition that would consume more bid and proposal funds. “Bid and proposal dollars are precious,” he said. He said the department is dedicated to providing opportunities for small businesses, but they will be competitive opportunities, not sole source awards. Congress is focusing more attention on procurement under the new Democratic majority. The House Government Reform Committee is holding a series of hearings on contracting for Iraq reconstruction and recovery from Hurricane Katrina. Nearly two dozen Democratic senators have introduced legislation to rein in sole source contracts. The prime sponsor of S. 606, North Dakota Sen. Byron Dorgan, said it aims to stop “outrageous rip-offs of the American taxpayer.” The bill would require competition on multiple award contracts worth more than $1 million and would ban sole source awards above $100 million. It would also restore what industry called the “blacklisting” rule originated by the Clinton administration. The rule prohibited awarding contracts to companies that exhibit a pattern of breaking the law in performance of government contracts. The Bush administration rescinded it shortly after the president took office.