Wharton Aerospace & Defense Report

Federal Agencies Keeping Spotty Past Performance Records on ContractorsMarch 04, 2011

Government agencies are inconsistently filling out mandatory reports on contractors' past performance for a database that is meant to help procurement officials choose effective contractors when issuing multimillion-dollar wartime awards, according to an article in The Government Executive.

Federal agencies are supposed to record data in the Contractor Performance Assessment Reporting System and into the Past Performance Information Retrieval System. But according to testimony before the Commission on Wartime Contracting, government agencies are entering data infrequently or in an ad hoc manner.

"If past-performance information isn't recorded in the federal database, then there's no shared, official record to consider in awarding new contracts," said Christopher Shays, commission co-chairman. "And if suspensions and debarments are impeded by bureaucratic decisions or inertia, then companies that have committed fraud may continue receiving taxpayer funds. In either case, untrustworthy contractors can continue profiting from government work, responsible businesses may be denied opportunities and costs to taxpayers can climb."

Many agencies attribute the lapse in documentation on staffing issues and competing priorities.

"The time constraints and workload conflicts [contracting officers] face between making new awards and ongoing administration plays itself out most fully in the past performance arena," said Maureen Shauket, chief acquisition officer for the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). "USAID, like many of our interagency colleagues who work in Afghanistan and Iraq, faces numerous challenges in implementing new systems or fulfilling reporting requirements given challenges with staffing shortages, staff turnover, competing urgent demands and changing requirements."

The commission found that the Defense and State departments and USAID failed to input past performance information in more than 90% of the contracts issued.

"It is clear that we must improve our documentation so that past performance information is more useful for all government contracting officers," said Corey Rindner, State's senior procurement executive.

To help improve the situation, The Office of Federal Procurement Policy plans to propose rules that would standardize steps in the evaluation ratings. The Federal Acquisition Institute has suggested establishing a training program on how best to track contractors' past performance.