The effect of not describing a neutral rating in the  solicitation was mitigated in most of these cases, however. The 12 procurements that were based on a tradeoff source selection  process generally complied with FAR requirements on proposal  evaluations. DSCP  has employed several techniques to promote compliance with best value  contracting procedures. First, to provide its contracting personnel with detailed procedures for  competitive negotiated procurements, DSCP developed and published in  1996 its own Guiding Principles for Best Value Source Selection, known  as the “Best Value Handbook.” The handbook outlines the functions and  responsibilities of key personnel in the best value source selection process  as well as various approaches to source selection that are available for  use. DLA Views Clothing and Textile Supplier Base as Uncertain

DLA officials view the future of the clothing and textile supplier base as  uncertain. They noted that the Berry Amendment, which requires DOD to  purchase certain items such as food, clothing, and textiles from domestic  sources, helps maintain a domestic supplier base to meet some of DOD’s  unique military requirements. However, they stated that  this increase in competition among domestic suppliers is the “last gasp of  a dying industry.” An increasing number of domestic suppliers are  competing for DSCP’s clothing and textile contracts for a variety of  reasons as the industry copes with a decline in employment and  production, consolidations and bankruptcies, increased imports, and  domestic suppliers moving overseas. According to DSCP officials, the implementation of free  trade agreements and the removal of the quotas may threaten second- and  third-tier suppliers. In those situations that involve critical military clothing and textile items,  DSCP officials said that DLA, in the future, could strengthen the supplier  base by increasingly providing contracts to a number of suppliers for  national defense purposes to achieve industrial mobilization. Appendix I: Scope and Methodology

To determine whether the Defense Logistics Agency’s (DLA) Defense  Supply Center Philadelphia (DSCP) Directorate of Clothing and Textiles  complied with selected statutory and regulatory guidance for best value  contracting, including the use of past performance as an evaluation factor,  we took a random sample of 15 of the 142 competed clothing and textile  procurements in fiscal year 2001, each exceeding $100,000. Finally, we  reviewed DSCP’s 1996 Guiding Principles for Best Value Source  Selection, known as the “Best Value Handbook.”
To obtain DLA’s views on the domestic supplier base for clothing and  textiles, we contacted DLA officials from DSCP.
Why GAO Did This Study

The Defense Logistics Agency (DLA) supplies the nation's military services and certain civilian agencies with critical resources needed to accomplish their worldwide missions. During fiscal year 2001, DLA contracts totaled $14.8 billion--$1.2 billion of which was for clothing and textiles. The House Committee on Armed Services directed GAO to determine whether DLA is properly implementing applicable statutory and regulatory guidance for "best value" purchases--those that in the federal government's view provide the greatest overall benefits, not just the lowest price. GAO was also asked to obtain DLA officials' views on the domestic supplier base for key clothing and textile items.

What GAO Found

Based on a random sample of clothing and textile procurements conducted in fiscal year 2001 by DLA's Defense Supply Center Philadelphia (DSCP), GAO estimates that DSCP generally complied with statutory and regulatory requirements for best value contracting. For example, all of the procurements in GAO's sample considered past performance as an evaluation factor in the source selection process. While GAO noted some discrepancies in several of these procurements, mitigating circumstances lessened the impact of the discrepancies in most cases. DSCP has employed several techniques to promote compliance with best value contracting procedures. For example, in 1996, DSCP published Guiding Principles for Best Value Source Selection, a handbook that outlines the functions and responsibilities of key personnel in the best value source selection process, as well as various approaches to source selection. According to DLA officials at DSCP, the ability of the domestic clothing and textile supplier base to meet future military requirements is uncertain. The officials said that, at present, DLA's domestic supplier base for clothing and textiles is more robust than ever, as numerous domestic suppliers who did not traditionally do business with DSCP are now competing for its contracts. However, they characterized this increased competition as the "last gasp of a dying industry." Domestic clothing and textile suppliers are competing for DSCP's business as the industry copes with a decline in employment and production and as the supplier base increasingly moves overseas. DSCP officials fear that as the clothing and textile industry faces increased imports, second- and third-tier suppliers that provide input to domestic producers of end items may go out of business, thus eroding the domestic supplier base for these items. They stated, however, that the "Berry Amendment," which requires DOD to purchase certain items such as food, clothing, and textiles from domestic sources, is helping to maintain the domestic supplier base at present.