The Government Accountability Office has found that federal agencies spent more than $130 billion per year on indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contracts between fiscal years 2011 and 2015.
GAO said in a report published Thursday that figure represented about a third of the federal government’s total contract obligations.
The report also identified the departments of Defense, Veterans Affairs, Health and Human Services and Homeland Security as primary users of IDIQ contracts.
DoD constituted 68 percent of all IDIQ contract spending in the past five years with contracting officers citing flexibility as the main driver behind the adoption of such contracts.
The agency found that at least 85 percent of orders made under multiple-award contracts and approximately 70 percent of single-award IDIQ contracts between FY 2011 and FY 2015 underwent competition.
GAO reviewed 18 single-award IDIQ contracts at DoD and found that 10 of them were not competed.
“Prices on IDIQ contracts and orders at DOD were established at different points, depending on how well-defined the requirements were at the time of contract award,†the agency added.
