The Defense Department‘s inspector general has called on the chief of contracts at the Naval Oceanographic Office to train contracting staff and establish procedures designed to change how NAVOCEANO awards task orders through multiple award contracts.DoD IG said in an audit report published Friday it made the recommendations following a review of 25 contracts worth $15.5 million combined.
The IG said it found that contracting officials at NAVOCEANO failed to cite an exception to fair opportunity requirements when it comes to the awarding of two non-competitive task orders worth $2.2 million and did not determine “price reasonableness†for four contracts valued at $1.8 million.
Contracts chief at the naval office should work to equip contracting staff with guidance that aims to support the documentation of price reasonableness determinations through updates to NAVOCEANO’s standard operating procedures as well as provide training on the review and approval of independent government estimates for contracts, according to the audit report.
The IG has also asked NAVOCEANO commanding officer to submit by July 18 additional responses to certain recommendations in the audit report, including updates to SOPs on the determination and documentation of contracts’ price reasonableness and development of processes for task order awards.
