DOD misses competition goals

The Pentagon failed to meet its fiscal year 2015 competition goal of 59 percent, according to a new letter from the director of defense procurement and acquisition policy.

In the letter, dated Nov. 20, Grady notes the Pentagon “will continue to emphasize the importance of competition.”

“In FY 2016 we are transitioning to an approach that uses a forecast model to examine projected competitive opportunities based on differing circumstance to account for anomalies at the Service/Component level,” she adds. “Under this approach each Service will present plans to identify opportunities for improving competition and establish more meaningful and achievable goals.”

According to a document attached to the letter, the Pentagon competed $150 billion in FY-15, or 55.1 percent of the nearly $273 billion total contracting dollars.

Some components of DOD did meet their competition goals. The Defense Contract Management Agency competed 72.7 percent of its contract spending, beating its 71 percent goal, while the Defense Threat Reduction Agency competed 87.6 percent to outpace its 87.3 percent goal.

The Missile Defense Agency hit a competition rate of 49 percent, beating its 42.7 percent goal.

The Air Force posted the lowest rate of competition at 39 percent, below its 44.4 percent objective. The Navy had the next lowest at 43.3 percent, shy of its 45.2 percent goal.