Professional Services Council release a letter sent to the House Armed Services Committee Thursday suggesting that Congress reject Section 802 of H.R. 4310, which would grant the Defense Department the ability to award no-bid, multi-year contracts to any federally funded research and development centers (FFRDCs),
President and CEO Stan Soloway outlined differences in multi-year contracts and multiple year contracts, stating that a multi-year contract buys more than one year’s requirement (of a product or service) without establishing and having to exercise an option for each program year after the first.
“In an era when defense budgets are constrained, and with the possibility of sequestration looming , it simply isn’t prudent to award contracts without meaningful competition, without appropriate transparency into costs or price, and without inspecting the justification for such awards,” said PSC President and CEO Stan Soloway.
Soloway believes that Congress will allow the DoD to enter into a sponsorship agreement for more than a year, without limitation. Soloway says that Congress confuses the two issues and has not addressed the established congressional requirement that multi-year contracts demonstrate significant savings over another period of performance.
“We believe it is time for there to be a competition for many of the services now assigned to FFRDCs and, as the president said, to ‘open the contracting process’ and ‘maximize transparency and accountability,’” Soloway said.
To read PSC’s letter, click here.
