Defense Department Acts to Improve Competition Defense Department officials believe a contract is not competitive unless at least two companies submit bids. But in many cases competitive contracts receive only a single offer. A proposed rule would require DOD contracting officers to go an extra mile: either recompete the contract or take steps to insure that the single bidder’s price is reasonable. The rule change “states the DoD policy that adequate price competition does not exist if only one offer is received,” DOD officials wrote in the July 25 Federal Register. Comments are due Sept. 23. The proposed amendment to the Defense Federal Acquisition Regulation Supplement grows out of the department’s Better Buying Initiative, an effort to drive down contract prices. Shay Assad, now DOD’s director of pricing, announced the policy in an April memo. (SAA, 5/13) Under the new rule, if an RFP was open for less than 30 days and only one offer was received, the contracting officer would have to reopen the solicitation for another 30 days in an effort to attract more offers. For RFPs that were open for 30 days or more, the contracting officer would have to seek a lower price either through price analysis or negotiations with the single bidder. DOD said, “The purpose and effect of this rule is to promote real competition by ensuring that adequate time is allowed for receipt of offers, and ensuring that prices are fair and reasonable when adequate time has been allowed but nevertheless only one offer is received in response to a competitive solicitation.” The proposed DOD rule is more stringent than the rules for civilian agencies. According to the FAR, a contracting officer may accept a single offer with the approval of a supervisor. In his April memo, Assad acknowledged that the policy would cause more work for DOD contracting officers, “but given today’s scarcity of resources we need to ensure effective competition to the maximum extent possible.”