ARMY AL&T
ON CONTRACTING
AVOID BRIDGES TO NOWHERE
DOD awards too many bridge contracts, limiting competition. Here’s how to fix that.
by Dennis P. Longo
Te third article in the On Contracting series, based on the Competition in Army Contracting course developed by the author for the Office of the Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Army for Procurement.
I
t’s been said that greatness is not measured by the walls we build, but by the bridges. Depart- ment of Defense leadership disagrees.
For several years, DOD has exploited the use of temporary contract extensions without obtaining competitive bids. Known as bridge actions, these temporary extensions weren’t
necessarily planned in advance, but have often been used as a way to prolong delivery of items or services under a contract until a replacement contract is awarded.
Ellen M. Lord, then undersecretary of defense for acquisition, technology and logistics, issued a memorandum on Jan. 31, 2018, titled “Bridge Actions Reduction Measures and Reporting Require- ment,” observing that in fiscal year 2015, there were over 1,100 bridge actions with obligations exceeding $13.7 billion. Tese bridge actions, in Lord’s view, represent a lost opportunity for savings that could have been reached by awarding new, competitively awarded contracts.
Lord isn’t the sole voice making this observation. A March 2012 U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) report (GAO 12-384) found that 18 of 111 justifications and approvals reviewed were bridge contracts with a total value of more than $9 billion, with five of the 18 awarded as a result of protests. Of the remaining awards, the most frequent reasons for the bridge actions included changing office managers multiple times, difficulties writing requirements that met the contract- ing officer’s standards, conflicting end-of-year responsibilities for contracting staff and extended length of time to approve acquisition strategies.
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