Despite objections from contractors, the government’s push for LPTA--low price, technically acceptable--procurements appears to be gathering momentum, according to new research from Market Connections and Centurion Research.

But one consolation for small businesses is that LPTA set-asides appear to be fairly abundant as well.

Looking ahead, Centurion said it has identified $27.7 billion in LPTA actionable opportunities from a pool of $4.3 trillion in pre-solicitation federal opportunities.

Of the $27.7 billion, $7.7 billion are anticipated to be small business and socioeconomic category set-asides, the study said. The remaining $20 billion are expected to be full and open competition LPTA contracts. Another $745 billion in the pipeline are “best value” contracts.

LPTA has been getting more popular among federal agencies in recent years, primarily at the Defense Department, which included it among several approaches in its Better Buying Initiative.

The estimated opportunities include $6.5 billion for DOD USTRANSCOM, $5.6 billion for the Navy, $4.3 billion for the Army, $4.2 billion for Veterans Affairs and $2.1 billion for the Air Force.

About 56% of the LPTA opportunities are for construction, facilities operations/ maintenance and utilities/housekeeping. Professional and IT services are 22%.

Centurion and Market Connections also surveyed 360 government acquisition professionals and 375 industry executives about LPTA.

Both groups believe LPTA procurement use will rise in the next three years: 42% of the federal employees and 59% of the contractors agreed with that assessment.

Of the federal specialists, 64% were very likely or somewhat likely to issue an LPTA solicitation, while 23% were unsure and 14% were unlikely. The main reason--cited by 46%--was that LPTA saves money in a time of limited budgets.

Eighty-two percent of the vendors said they would bid on an LPTA contract, and 61% said it was because there were fewer opportunities available.

At the same time, vendors have strong objections to LPTA.

“Contractors feel that LPTA stifles their ability to innovate, propose and deliver the best solutions,” the report indicated.

Nearly half of contractors (49%) said they felt pressured to offer a lower-price solution that may not be in the government’s best interest; 40% said LPTA made them less innovative and 30% said they had no chance to provide value-added solutions under an LPTA procurement.

To cope with LPTA, 63% of the contractors said they are responding to the letter of the RFP; 53% are reducing indirect rates; 47% are relying on junior staff; 39% are reducing staff; 33% are freezing or capping salaries; and 26% are reducing salaries.

More information: Market Connections/Centurion survey http://goo.gl/cj1w61