Controls Planned for Interagency Contracts, BPAs Agencies will be required to write a business case to justify creation of any new interagency contract or blanket purchase agreement under guidance to be issued shortly by the Office of Management and Budget. Dan Gordon, administrator of OMB’s Office of Federal Procurement Policy, said the guidance will also cover some enterprisewide contracts that are intended for use only by a single agency. He said the new controls will help avoid duplication of contract vehicles that is costly for both the government and contractors. The requirement is a follow-on to similar controls placed on governmentwide acquisition contracts for IT. An interim rule issued in December requires business cases to justify those contract vehicles. Testifying before the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, Gordon said, “The new business cases will expressly require that agencies consider whether their new contract might be causing duplication with existing vehicles and they will need to justify why a new contract would be needed.” For several years the Government Accountability Office has placed interagency contracting on its High Risk List of federal programs that could contribute to waste, fraud or abuse. GAO said the lack of controls, plus inadequate data on how such contracts are being used, creates problems. Gordon acknowledged that, before the latest controls were added, interagency contracting had been “a Wild West.” He said new interagency contracts may be justified in cases where there is a clear need. He believes the lack of an appropriate interagency vehicle has contributed to duplicative contracts being awarded by individual agencies. “Far too often, separate and redundant contracts and BPAs are awarded by each agency component to serve a narrow customer base, which duplicates efforts and denies us the benefit of the federal government being the world’s largest customer,” he testified. He said the strategic sourcing initiative is also intended to do away with duplicative contracts, for example by awarding governmentwide BPAs for office supplies and other commodities.