NASA Procurement: Agencywide Action Needed to Improve Management of Contract Modifications
NSIAD-92-87
Published: Mar 02, 1992. Publicly Released: May 07, 1992.
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Highlights
Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO assessed the causes and management of 65 cost and schedule modifications to contracts administered by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's (NASA) four largest procurement centers.
Recommendations
Recommendations for Executive Action
| Agency Affected | Recommendation | Status |
|---|---|---|
| National Aeronautics and Space Administration | The Administrator, NASA, should establish and enforce minimum training requirements for technical representatives that emphasize their role and responsibilities, scope of authority, and relationship to other members of the procurement management team. |
Closed – Implemented
The NASA Federal Acquisition Regulation Supplement was published in January 1994 to implement a program of mandatory training for technical representatives.
|
| National Aeronautics and Space Administration | The Administrator, NASA, should direct contracting officers to enforce requirements that technical representatives perform and document adequate technical evaluations. |
Closed – Implemented
NASA is developing a training and policy initiative to implement a program of mandatory training for technical representatives. In addition, contracting officers have been reminded of their responsibilities regarding technical evaluations.
|
| National Aeronautics and Space Administration | The Administrator, NASA, should ensure that appropriate NASA personnel at the center where GAO found instances of unjustified, noncompetitive additions of new work to existing contracts understand the factors to consider in deciding on and justifying such additions. |
Closed – Implemented
Contracting officers' responsibilities pertaining to new work modifications to existing contracts are covered under the agency's new contract and subcontract management training course which will train all permanent personnel at NASA.
|
| National Aeronautics and Space Administration | The Administrator, NASA, should adjust the frequency of procurement management surveys and alter their scope, at least on a selective basis, to determine the causes of contract administration problems. Such surveys should also be planned to recognize differences among centers and focus on those areas of the procurement process that have been previously identified as potential problems. |
Closed – Implemented
The Assistant Administrator of Procurement has already taken steps that comply with the objective of this recommendation. Center reviews by procurement management survey teams are being varied in frequency depending on the results of each review. Staff from the Contract Management Division serve as members of each survey team in order to focus on specific areas of contract management weaknesses.
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Topics
Aerospace contractsContract administrationContract costsContract extensionsContract modificationsContract negotiationsFederal procurementIrregular procurementProcurement evaluationSurveys