IG Raps Defense Dept.'s Use of GSA Contract Vehicles In the latest scathing report on Defense Department contracting, the DOD inspector general found widespread problems with procurements through GSA’s Federal Technology Service. “General Services Administration contracting officials and DOD management officials did not comply with the U.S. Constitution, appropriations law and the Federal Acquisition Regulation when making purchases through the General Services Administration,” the IG said. After examining 75 purchases through FTS during the fourth quarter of fiscal 2004, the IG said 68 of them contained no record of acquisition planning to determine whether FTS was the best choice, “38 were funded improperly, the requesting DOD organization either did not have a bona fide need for the requirement in the year of the appropriation or did not use the correct appropriation to fund the requirement.” Auditors also said DOD lost access to $1 billion to $2 billion over the last five years by “parking” the money in GSA’s Information Technology Fund. “Parking” has been used to carry over money from one fiscal year to the next, but GSA has stopped the practice on the grounds that it is illegal. Last year GSA and DOD instituted the “Get It Right” campaign to try to ensure that GSA schedules and other contract vehicles were being used properly. DOD issued guidance in October requiring additional reviews of purchases through GSA. Industry representatives said that guidance scared some contracting officers away from using GSA schedules, and in June the Defense Department issued additional guidance saying it was not discouraging the use of the schedules. In response to the IG report, Deidre Lee, then-director of defense procurement and acquisition policy, said the new controls should cure some of the problems cited by auditors. Congress last year ordered the IG to examine the Defense Department’s use of GSA and other non-DOD contract vehicles. This year the Senate version of the Defense Authorization bill calls for the inspectors general of Defense, GSA and other contracting agencies to monitor interagency contracting. The Senate Armed Services Committee report on the bill says, “These contracts have created a chaotic marketplace in which federal agencies are being offered similar products under a wide array of contracts, without any easy way of comparing between the products.” The committee said DOD “does not have an adequate system to track such basic information as who is using these contracts, what they are buying, and how much they are paying.” The report, D-2005-096, is available at www.dodig.mil.