The Competition in Contracting Act (CICA) of 1984 requires agencies to obtain full and open competition through the use of competitive procedures in their procurement activities unless otherwise authorized by law. However, Congress also recognized that in certain situations contracts may need to be awarded noncompetitively—that is, without full and open competition. Generally, these contracts must be supported by written justifications and approvals that contain sufficient facts and rationale to justify the use of a specific exception to full and open competition, such as when the contractor is the only source capable of performing the work.program fall under one of these exceptions but were not previously required to include a justification. Sole-source contracts awarded under the 8(a) Pub. L. No. 111-84, § 811 (2009). table 1, which compares the required elements of CICA and 8(a) justifications for sole-source contracts. While the required elements of 8(a) and CICA justifications differ, both types of justifications are generally required to be published on the federal government’s web site for announcing contract opportunities and the agency website after the contract award is made. In addition, the official who must approve an 8(a) justification for a contract over $20 million would be the same official who must approve a CICA justification of the same amount. This official is determined by the estimated total dollar value of the proposed contract, as outlined in the FAR. The head of the procuring activity or the agency’s senior procurement executive generally approves 8(a) justifications. Figure 1 shows the competition thresholds and current sole-source justification requirements under the 8(a) program. Prior to awarding an 8(a) contract, whether sole-source or competitive, agencies are required to submit an offer letter to SBA identifying the requirement—that is, what goods or services are being procured—as well as any procurement history for the requirement, the estimated dollar amount, and the name of the particular 8(a) firm if intending to award the contract on a sole-source basis. A business opportunity specialist within an 8(a) program district office is to respond with a letter stating whether SBA has accepted the procurement into the 8(a) program after confirming the firm’s eligibility to receive the contract and considering factors that could prohibit SBA’s acceptance of the procurement. SBA assesses a firm’s eligibility based on a number of criteria, including the firm’s size and whether the procurement is consistent with the firm’s business plan. Under the new 8(a) justification requirement, SBA may not accept a sole- source contract over $20 million for negotiation under the 8(a) program unless the procuring agency has completed an 8(a) justification in accordance with the FAR. Partnership agreements between the procuring agencies and SBA outline the responsibilities of both parties in the 8(a) contracting process. These agreements generally delegate SBA’s contract execution function to the agencies after SBA has completed initial acceptance of the procurement into the program. The FAR Council oversees development and maintenance of the FAR. Its membership consists of the OFPP Administrator for Federal Procurement Policy, the Secretary of Defense, the Administrator of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, and the Administrator of the General Services Administration. The FAR Council issues rules to implement changes to the FAR that are mandated by law. Typically, the first step is a proposed rule, which presents the proposed text in the Federal Register and seeks written comments. In some cases, interim rules are used to implement immediate changes to the FAR and include the text of the revision. Proposed and interim rules can be amended by final rules, which make changes to the FAR after consideration of public comments. The FAR Council did not implement the new 8(a) justification requirement in the FAR by the mandatory deadline set in law. Section 811 of the NDAA for Fiscal Year 2010 required that the FAR be amended within 180 days of the statute’s enactment date to require justifications for 8(a) sole- source contracts over $20 million. Instead, 504 days elapsed between the enactment of the law on October 28, 2009, and the FAR change to implement it on March 16, 2011. In August 2010, almost 1 year after enactment of section 811, the FAR Council issued a notice announcing plans to hold three tribal consultation meetings to obtain comments on implementation of this section from the tribal communities. The council held public meetings during October 2010 in Washington, D.C.; Albuquerque, New Mexico; and Fairbanks, Alaska. After receiving comments, the FAR Council published the rule addressing the 8(a) justification requirements as an interim rule, rather than proposed, because the statutory date for issuance of regulations had already passed. OFPP officials who were involved in the implementation of this rule explained that the primary reason for the FAR Council’s delay was establishing a process for, and holding, tribal consultations. According to the OFPP officials, the FAR Council did not have previous experience conducting such consultations, and developing a process for this delayed the announcement of the meetings. Figure 2 shows key dates in the enactment and implementation of this provision. In its announcement of the planned tribal consultation meetings, the Council cited an executive order that directs certain executive federal agencies to consult with Indian tribes on policies that have tribal implications.order are a critical component of a sound and productive federal-tribal relationship. The Council noted that the consultations provided for in the Section 811 of the NDAA for Fiscal Year 2010 did not require agencies to implement the new justification requirement until it was implemented in the FAR through an interim or final rule, and contracting and policy officials from the agencies involved in our review confirmed that they waited for the FAR revision. Almost 325 days elapsed between the 180- day mandatory deadline after enactment (April 26, 2010) and FAR implementation on March 16, 2011. During this period, according to FPDS-NG data, agencies awarded 42 sole-source 8(a) contracts with anticipated values over $20 million—with a total value of over $2.3 billion—that would have been subject to the new justification requirement if the FAR Council had implemented the change by the statutory deadline. Figure 3 illustrates the number of such contracts awarded per fiscal year quarter in the last 4 years and key dates in the implementation of the new justification requirement. According to FPDS-NG data, 72 contracts had a reported value of more than $20 million in the period from the October 28, 2009, enactment of the statute requiring the 8(a) justification requirement through March 31, 2012. (See appendix II for the number and value of contracts by agency.) However, we found inaccuracies in the data on reported contract value. To understand the trends in award of 8(a) sole-source contracts with reported values greater than $20 million, we also analyzed FPDS-NG data from fiscal year 2008 through the last full year of data available, fiscal year 2011. Compared to fiscal years 2008 through 2010, the number and value of these contracts declined significantly in fiscal year 2011, when only 20 were awarded, as shown in figure 4. Although we found the FPDS-NG data on total contract value overall to be sufficiently reliable to use for our analysis, we found several cases where the Base and All Options data element had been inaccurately reported by the agencies as being much lower than the actual value of the contract. For instance, the Army had awarded a contract worth about $84 million according to contract documents, but its reported value in FPDS-NG was only $24 million. This data element is intended to reflect the total contract value at the time of award, including all options. For indefinite delivery indefinite quantity (IDIQ) contracts, the FPDS-NG data dictionary stipulates that this element is the estimated value for all orders expected to be placed against the contract.field in FPDS-NG for all awards, we found five awarded since October 28, Although this is a required 2009, that implausibly listed a total value of zero. For example, two related Army contracts were both listed as having a value of zero, but when we reviewed the contract files, we found that their total anticipated value was actually $350 million. GSA officials who are responsible for managing the FPDS-NG data system told us that there should not be any instances in which a contract award would have a value of zero. The errors in this data element make it difficult to accurately determine the extent to which agencies are awarding sole source 8(a) contracts valued over $20 million. From March 16, 2011, through March 31, 2012, 14 sole-source 8(a) contracts worth over $20 million were awarded by five agencies. Only three of those contracts—two awarded by the Air Force and the other by the State Department—included 8(a) justifications. The agencies awarding the remaining 11 contracts did not comply with the new justification requirement, either because they were not aware of the requirement and did not prepare a justification, or because they were confused and incorrectly used a CICA justification, as summarized in Figure 5. Contracting officials are required to ensure that all requirements of law and regulation are met before awarding any contract, and as a result, they should keep abreast of changes to the FAR. Yet, for five of the 11 contracts, contracting officials did not comply with the new justification requirement because they were not aware of it. A GSA regional office awarded a sole-source contract for support services to an 8(a) firm in October 2011, with an anticipated value of $40 million. No justification was completed. According to GSA officials, the contracting officer was unaware of the justification requirement at the time of award.