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Summary

This report identified that FRA used a flawed criterion to justify noncompetitive contract awards of $760,000 for replacing the FRA e-mail system. We found that FRA procurement staff lacked the necessary understanding of information technology services for identifying competing sources, and FRA did not check the prospective vendor's financial qualifications prior to contract award. Recommendations are to: (1) terminate the contract or, if deemed not feasible, resolicit for competition at the end of the 1-year base period, (2) enhance knowledge of IT services among procurement personnel, and (3) perform additional qualification checks before future contract awards. FRA did not agree to terminate the contract for the convenience of the Federal Government, but agreed to obtain competition at the end of the base period, and disagreed with the two other recommendations. We asked FRA to reconsider its position.