“DOD contracting officials requested cost or pricing information from contractors to determine the reasonableness of proposed prices for [only] 12 of 32 commercial contracts in GAO’s sample,” the report, released on Wednesday, stated.
The GAO added that for 20 contracts, “officials did not request any contractor information to determine price reasonableness.”
Officials determined the prices fair and reasonable based on information already available to the US government, such as prices paid on previous contracts, the report explained.
“Overall, GAO found that contracting officials faced challenges when determining price reasonableness, such as data currency and contractor reluctance to share data,” it noted.
The US Government Accountability Office is an independent, nonpartisan agency that works for Congress and investigates how the federal government spends taxpayer dollars.
