Determining the value of Contractor Performance Assessment Reporting System (CPARS) narratives for the acquisition process
Author
Black, Sean
Henley, Jarred
Clute, Matthew
Date
2014-06Advisor
Rendon, Rene G.
Apte, Uday
Dixon, Mike
Metadata
Show full item recordAbstract
In the last 20 years, the Department of Defense has seen a general reduction in the acquisition workforce yet experienced unprecedented growth in spending for services. The government has increased the level of scrutiny on service contracts highlighting the need to consistently follow policy when documenting contractor performance in the Contractor Performance Assessment Reporting System (CPARS). This report used statistical analysis to examine 715 Army service contractor performance reports in CPARS in order to answer the following questions: (1) Are government contracting professionals submitting contractor performance narratives in accordance with CPARS guidelines? (2) What is the added value of the contractor performance narratives beyond the value of the objective scores for performance? (3) What is the statistical relationship between the narratives and the objective scores? (4) Do the interview findings contradict, support, or enhance the findings for the three questions above? (5) What conclusions or recommendations can we draw from the answers to the questions above? The findings revealed inconsistencies between the objective scores and narratives entered into CPARS. This report discusses the findings and concludes with eight recommendations to improve documenting contractor performance.
Rights
This publication is a work of the U.S. Government as defined in Title 17, United States Code, Section 101. Copyright protection is not available for this work in the United States.Collections
Related items
Showing items related by title, author, creator and subject.
-
Award fees and their relationship to contract success
Sherman, Bran; Lipscomb, Jonathan (Monterey, California: Naval Postgraduate School, 2015-06);Award fee contracts are applicable when objective criteria are neither feasible nor effective. They were heavily used to incentivize contractor performance in the procurement of major defense acquisition programs (MDAPs) ... -
Analysis of source selection methods and performance outcomes: lowest price technically acceptable vs. tradeoff in air force acquisitions
Ban, Rebecca W.; Barnes, Brett O.; Comer, Matthew B. (Monterey, California: Naval Postgraduate School, 2015-12);As part of procurement planning, government acquisition teams must select a method by which proposals will be evaluated. The two most common methodologies are lowest price technically acceptable (LPTA) and tradeoff. There ... -
Problems with award-fee contracts in the Department of Defense
Ricks, Shemeka S.; Robertson, Tony I.; Jolliffe, Dennis D. (Monterey, California: Naval Postgraduate School, 2013-12);Award-fee arrangements are a valuable contractual approach for the Department of Defense (DoD) when used properly. Award-fee contracts provide incentives to motivate contractor performance in areas critical to program ...