Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority: Contracting Practices Do Not Always Comply with Airport Lease Requirements
GAO-02-36
Published: Mar 01, 2002. Publicly Released: Mar 01, 2002.
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Highlights
The Metropolitan Washington Airports Act of 1986 transferred operating responsibility for Dulles and Reagan National Airports from the federal government to the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority (MWAA), an independent, nonfederal, public entity. MWAA, which has a 50-year lease to run the two airports, has entered into a wide range of contracts for supplies, construction, and other services. Although MWAA issued guidance in 1993 for the awarding of contracts and concession franchises, GAO found that the guidance does not adequately reflect competitive contracting principles and is out of date in many respects. Moreover, MWAA does not use its guidance to award contracts for non-concession goods and services. MWAA did not obtain full and open competition for 15 of the 35 contracts GAO reviewed, raising concerns about whether MWAA obtained the best value for the goods and services provided. The failure to obtain full and open competition also raises concerns about whether MWAA has (1) deprived prospective contractors of the chance to compete for contracts and (2) fairly evaluated all of the contractors that have competed for procurements. Finally, by not following recognized competitive principles, MWAA could be giving the appearance of favoritism in its contracting decisions.
Recommendations
Matter for Congressional Consideration
| Matter | Status | Comments |
|---|---|---|
| To help ensure that MWAA satisfies its obligations under the lease, Congress may wish to consider clarifying the 1986 act to specify that, as lessor, the Department of Transportation is responsible for ensuring that MWAA (1) fully complies with the contracting requirements imposed in the lease and (2) takes all steps needed to correct the problems that GAO identified. |
Closed – Not Implemented
|
Congressional action was not subsequently needed since the Department of Transportation, as lessor, took action--as recommended in GAO's report--to help ensure that the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority (MWAA) would satisfy its lease obligations. |
Recommendations for Executive Action
| Agency Affected | Recommendation | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority | To help ensure that the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority's (MWAA) future contracting activities comply with the requirements imposed in MWAA's lease with the federal government, the board of directors should take steps to ensure that MWAA publishes, for review and comment by the public, procedures for competitively awarding contracts in excess of $200,000 and all of its contracts for concession franchises and thereafter that MWAA publishes--and makes readily available to the public--a complete, adequate, and current set of its contracting procedures. |
Closed – Implemented
MWAA issued its draft contracting procedures for the public's review and comment in June 2002.
|
| Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority | To help ensure that the MWAA future contracting activities comply with the requirements imposed in MWAA's lease with the federal government, the board of directors should take steps to ensure that MWAA's published procedures provide for, among other things, evaluating all future contractor proposals in accordance with the factors and processes specified in its solicitations. |
Closed – Implemented
Analyses by the Office of General Counsel indicate that the airport authority's revised contracting procedures require the authority to evaluate future contractor proposals in accordance with the factors and processes specified in its solicitations.
|
| Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority | To help ensure that the MWAA future contracting activities comply with the requirements imposed in MWAA's lease with the federal government, the board of directors should take steps to ensure that MWAA's published procedures provide for, among other things, obtaining and evaluating prices for the entirety of its known or anticipated need for each procurement before selecting a successful contractor. |
Closed – Implemented
Analyses by the Office of General Counsel indicate that the airport authority's revised contracting procedures require the authority to obtain and evaluate prices for the entirety of a known or anticipated procurement.
|
| Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority | To help ensure that the MWAA future contracting activities comply with the requirements imposed in MWAA's lease with the federal government, the board of directors should take steps to ensure that MWAA's published procedures provide for, among other things, ensuring that contract modifications for additional goods and services are within the scope of work that MWAA solicited and competed. |
Closed – Implemented
Analyses by the Office of General Counsel indicate that the airport authority's revised contracting procedures require the authority to ensure that its contract modifications are within the scope of work that it solicited and competed.
|
| Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority | To help ensure that the MWAA future contracting activities comply with the requirements imposed in MWAA's lease with the federal government, the board of directors should take steps to ensure that MWAA's published procedures provide for, among other things, ensuring that all work (i.e. work where the total contract value is estimated to exceed $200,000) is subject to full and open competition, to the maximum extent practicable, including all work ordered through the exercise of options or through other contract modifications. |
Closed – Not Implemented
Analyses by the Office of General Counsel indicate that the airport authority's revised contracting procedures do not sufficiently address the need to ensure that all work ordered via the exercise of options or through other contract modifications is subject to full and open competition.
|
| Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority | To help ensure that the MWAA future contracting activities comply with the requirements imposed in MWAA's lease with the federal government, the board of directors should take steps to ensure that MWAA's published procedures provide for, among other things, ensuring that any work (i.e. work whose total contract value is estimated to exceed $200,000) that is awarded using less than full and open competition is adequately justified and approved by MWAA's board of directors, as appropriate. |
Closed – Implemented
Analyses by the Office of General Counsel indicate that the airport authority's revised contracting procedures generally address the need for Board of Director approval of work that is awarded using less than full and open competition.
|
| Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority | To help ensure that the MWAA future contracting activities comply with the requirements imposed in MWAA's lease with the federal government, the board of directors should take steps to ensure that MWAA updates its published contracting procedures regularly and that MWAA consistently follows the published procedures. |
Closed – Implemented
Analyses by the Office of General Counsel indicate that the airport authority's revised contracting procedures satisfy GAO's recommendation that the authority regularly update and consistently follow its published procedures.
|
| Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority | The board should reevaluate MWAA's use of preestablished thresholds to exclude contractor proposals from award consideration. |
Closed – Implemented
As evidenced in its June 2002 draft contracting procedures, MWAA reevaluated its use of preestablished thresholds to exclude contractor proposals from award consideration. These procedures were finalized in January 2003.
|
| Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority | To help ensure that the board is well-informed, it should require periodic reports on (1) MWAA's actions to address GAO's audit findings and (2) the extent of MWAA's use of less than full and open competition. |
Closed – Not Implemented
GAO could not, on the basis of reviewing the airport authority's revised contracting procedures, determine whether periodic contracting reports will be required.
|
| Department of Transportation | As signatory of MWAA's lease with the federal government, the secretary of transportation should take appropriate actions to follow up on MWAA's actions to address GAO's findings and recommendations. |
Closed – Implemented
The Department of Transportation took action to follow-up on MWAA's response to GAO's findings and recommendations.
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AirportsCompetitive procurementContract performanceContract oversightLeasesContract termsConstruction contractsProcurement practicesService contractsSource selection