Task Order Contracts Are Where The Money Is The explosive growth of multiple award, IDIQ contracts for services is shaping the set-aside market, especially in information technology-related fields, according to the market research firm Input. All of the 10 largest set-aside opportunities this year will be multiple award, IDIQ vehicles. Together, those contracts account for one-third of the set-aside dollars that will be competed in fiscal 2008, Input said. (See list of contracts.) Task orders under IDIQ contracts – including interagency vehicles and enterprise-wide contracts awarded by individual agencies – now consume more than half the dollars the government spends on services, said Robert Burton, deputy administrator of the Office of Federal Procurement Policy. He spoke at Input’s annual conference in McLean, VA, on Nov. 1. Underscoring the government’s growing reliance on task orders, Input forecasts a decline in all types of set-aside contracts this year. Set-aside spending is seen falling to $13 billion, from $21 billion in 2007. Input’s report echoes a similar finding in a June study by the Center for Strategic and International Studies. It warned that winning a place on multiple award vehicles is a must for service contractors. (SAA, 6/15) “We are concerned that competition is not robust enough on task order contracts,” Burton said. The Federal Acquisition Regulation councils are preparing a new rule that would extend the Defense Department’s Section 803 requirement to all civilian agencies; they would be required to get at least three offers on GSA schedule orders and give fair notice of every task order opportunity to all eligible vendors on other multiple award contracts. Burton said the rule will also require public notice on FedBizOpps of all sole-source awards. Several bills pending in Congress also aim at promoting competition. In a May 31 memo to agency acquisition and procurement chiefs, OFPP administrator Paul Denett described competition as “the cornerstone of our acquisition system.” OFPP has identified more than 200 enterprise-wide contracts established by single agencies, such as the Navy’s Seaport-e and Homeland Security’s Eagle and First Source. Burton said they are now the vehicles of choice for many large agencies, reducing their use of GSA schedules and governmentwide acquisition contracts. Those enterprise-wide contracts, coupled with 54 interagency contracts and 13 GWACs, are “probably too many,” he said. He advocates greater use of interagency contracts as part of a strategic sourcing strategy.