NEWS

By Sue Pleming

WASHINGTON, May 27 (Summary of Reuters Article) - Over one-third of U.S. government contracts are awarded to private corporations without full and fair competition, according to a report released by Congress. The report found $107 billion worth of government contracts were awarded in 2003 without any attempt to find the lowest-cost contractor. Seventy-three percent of those non-competitive contracts were awarded by the military. "The administration's approach to government procurement is deeply flawed. We need more competition, not less," said Congressman Henry Waxman (D-CA), who issued the report. Waxman said the government's refusal to require competitive bidding for contracts causes waste, fraud and abuse, especially during an era when more jobs that were once performed by government workers are contracted out to private corporations. Non-competitive deals issued by the government increased by $40 billion to $107 billion compared to the last year of the Clinton administration when $67 billion in contracts were awarded without competition. The report is based on information from the Federal Procurement Data System which contains records of each contract action of the federal government.