“A new Government Accountability Office (GAO) review found that award timeliness has improved overall since FY 2017. Agencies issued 69 percent of awards within the recommended time that year, compared to 82 percent of awards that GAO reviewed for fiscal year 2020. However, 20 of the 29 agencies GAO reviewed—including 12 within DOD—have not consistently issued awards on time. Eleven agencies issued at least 50% of their awards late in 2020.
The lack of timeliness dates back at least five years: 20 agencies were routinely late during that period, issuing fewer than 90 percent of their awards on time for three or more of the five fiscal years since 2016…”
“GAO noted that in FY 2020, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) worked closely with and trained SBIR/STTR contracting officers to expedite communication to small businesses about awards and also implemented a streamlined cost guidance document to aid small businesses in the application process. DARPA began these changes in FY 2020; agency officials said they would expect to see the effects on timeliness in FY 2021.
The Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) Science and Technology Directorate met issuance timeliness recommendations for all its awards in fiscal years 2016, 2017, and 2019, though not in fiscal year 2020 (with 79 percent of its awards issued within the recommended time). According to agency officials, the decline in fiscal year 2020 was due to changes in privacy compliance documentation requirements that increased the amount of necessary paperwork and delayed awards that were under negotiation. In addition, changes in operations due to the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic added to these delays…” Read the full article here.
Source: GAO Tells Agencies to Improve Contract Award Timeliness to Small Businesses – By Kylie Bielby, October 15, 2021. Homeland Security Today.
