Feb 17, 2008

Less than a third of the $11.5 billion in contracts awarded by the Homeland Security Department in fiscal 2007 were approved after full and open competitions, according to figures available on the USAspending.gov Web site.

The 27.2 percent of contracts DHS awarded competitively last year was an improvement over fiscal 2005 and 2006, when the percentage of competitive bids were 15 percent and 17.5 percent, respectively. Democrats in Congress, including Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.), chairman of the Oversight and Government Reform Committee, have criticized DHS for its low level of competitive bidding.

Overall, the bulk of contracts from fiscal 2004 through the first quarter of fiscal 2008 were awarded after one bid or no bids. The only exception was the department’s first year of operation – fiscal 2003 – in which 53 percent of the contracting was by competitive bidding.

The number of contracts awarded has grown, with a sharp increase after Hurricane Katrina in August 2005.

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