IV. Competition Advocate Reviews of NonCompetitive Purchase Requests of $1M or Greater

Competition Advocate Role and Reviews

The CA must complete an independent review of all noncompetitive purchase requests (NPRs) valued at $1M or greater and provide feedback and comments to responsible COs. The COs must consider any comments and concerns raised by the CA in their evaluation and recommendation concerning the NPR and the proposed supplier. The NPRs are submitted to the COs by the requiring organizations once the purchase/SCM team makes a preliminary purchase method recommendation to proceed noncompetitively.

From October 1, 2013, to September 30, 2014, the CA reviewed and commented on 82 requests with a total estimated contract value of $2.1B. The requests ranged from short-term contract modifications of a few months to long-term extensions over multiple years. The requested value included in the NPR is based on the estimated future spend by the requiring organization. Each request may be executed by the CO via a single contract action or via multiple actions within the value defined in the NPR.

The full value of the NPR may not be committed if the CO negotiates a lower price or if the contract contains options that are not exercised or if the request is cancelled. Table 3 outlines the total NPR estimated value by fiscal year.

Table 3.

NPR Value by FY

 

Fiscal Year

NPR Requested Value

FY14

$459,118,121

FY15

$871,453,242

FY16

$571,096,750

FY17

$231,755,744

Total

$2,133,423,857

Each NPR must be based on one of the four following business scenarios:

  1. Sole Source.
  2. Industry Structure or Practice.
  3. Compelling Business Interests.
  4. Superior Performance.

Table 4 provides the details related to each business scenario justification.

Table 4

Business Scenario Justification

 

 

Count

Requested Value

Percent of Requests

Percent of Value

Compelling Business Interests

56

$1,698,248,796

79.6%

68.3%

Sole Source

19

$227,375,061

10.7%

23.2%

Industry Structure or Practice

5

$195,000,000

9.1%

6.1%

Superior Performance

2

$12,800,000

0.6%

2.4%

Grand Total

82

$2,133,423,857

100%

100%

Table 5 provides details related to the value and total requests by the Executive Leadership Team (ELT) member organization.

Table 5

Value and Requests by Executive Leadership Team

 

ELT

Count

NPR Estimated $ Value

Percent of NPR $ Value

Percent of NPR Count

CFO

6

$78,750,000

3.7%

7.3%

CHRO

5

$18,824,079

0.9%

6.1%

CIO

49

$1,491,274,717

69.9%

59.8%

CMSO

2

$13,000,000

0.6%

2.4%

COO

17

$523,073,216

24.5%

20.7%

GC

2

$3,101,845

0.1%

2.4%

PMG

1

$5,400,000

0.3%

1.2%

Total

82

$2,133,423,857

100.0%

100.0%

 

Overview of High-Value Noncompetitive Contract Actions

In FY14, the CA reviewed 11 NPRs with estimated commitment values greater than $50M, totaling $1.6B or 75.1% of the total commitment value of NPRs submitted. The majority of these large NPRs were required to provide support services and upgrades for our aging IT Infrastructure and customized software applications. Many of the Postal Services legacy systems were designed and developed by original equipment manufacturers and the suppliers remain the practical sole source to provide the support needed to maintain these systems. The size and scale of our IT Infrastructure also limits opportunities for competition.

We also issued two large NPRs to ensure continuity of service and minimize the risk of service failure related to air transportation service. Below is information about these larger dollar value NPRs that were issued in FY2014.

Chief Information Officer (CIO) Organization:

Chief Operating Officer (COO) Organization: