Office of Inspector General report on followup audit on the procurement of support services for the Energy Information Administration

This audit was performed to follow up on actions taken in response to the July 1990 report on ``Procurement of Support Services for the Energy Information Administration`` (CR-OC-90-2). The audit disclosed that over 50% of the work under six of the cost-reimbursement contracts examined was recurring and could have been estimated with a reasonable degree of accuracy making the work suitable for fixed-price contracting. The report made recommendations to the Head of Procurement and the Administrator, EIA. These recommendations were to comply with procurement regulations by identifying recurring tasks that were susceptible to fixed-price contracting, preparing definitive statements of work that would permit fixed-price contracting, and awarding fixed-price contracts. Procurement recognized the benefits of fixed-price contracting and agreed to work closely with the EIA to identify work susceptible to fixed-price contracting. These efforts resulted in the award of two labor hour contracts but no firm-fixed-price contracts. The purpose of this followup audit was to review Procurement and EIA actions to develop definitive work statements for recurring tasks that are suitable for firm-fixed-price contracts. The audit objective was to determine what progress Procurement and EIA have made in utilizing firm-fixed-price contracts. In FY 1996, EIA had 14 contracts valued at about $202 million that were issued as cost reimbursement and labor hour contracts.