Feds can't evaluate their competition in A-76 studies

Federal employees cannot evaluate contractor proposals if the employees are competing against the contractors for their jobs, Comptroller General David M. Walker ruled recently.

Air Force employees whose jobs were on the line in a recent public-private competition were allowed to evaluate contractors' proposals. If the contractors won the competition, the employees' jobs would have been outsourced. The employees rejected the contractors' proposals and determined that they must continue to do the work in-house.

"In this situation, agency evaluators are in effect evaluating a competitor's proposal," the comptroller general said. "Fourteen of 16 agency evaluators, including 4 of 6 core evaluators, continued to hold positions that were under study and at risk of being contracted out in the event that a private-sector contractor's proposal was determined acceptable."

The Air Force should have appointed other employees to evaluate the contractor proposals, Walker ruled.

As part of the Defense Department's effort to reduce the costs of support services for military operations, the Air Force decided it could save money by contracting out operations and maintenance services at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio. The Air Force began an A-76 study, the government's method of determining whether a service should be performed in-house or if it should be contracted out.

In the A-76 process, the federal employees who perform the work that may be contracted out develop a proposal for keeping the work in-house at the lowest possible cost. Then their agency requests bids from the private sector for the same work. If a private sector bid is lower, the work is contracted out. If not, the work stays in-house.

The Air Force received two contractor proposals for the work at Wright-Patterson. The government team evaluated the proposals and rejected them.

The two contractors protested the Air Force's decision to the comptroller general.

In a statement submitted to the comptroller general, the contracting officer for the project said, "I could not help but be aware of the potential for a conflict of interest from the technical evaluation team," but "due to the requirement for expertise in the performance requirements, there was no one else available and qualified to perform as part of the technical evaluation team."

The comptroller general dismissed that argument, saying "it seems implausible that there were no other personnel available in the Department of the Air Force who were qualified to evaluate proposals for installation civil operations and maintenance services."

In the next five years, the Defense Department plans to put at least 225,000 civilian jobs up for public-private competitions. Historically, contractors win the competitions half the time and federal employees win half the time, according to the Defense Department.