VA’s Administration of the Transformation Twenty-One Total Technology Next Generation Contract

Between March and August 2016, VA’s Technology Acquisition Center (TAC) awarded the Transformation Twenty-One Total Technology Next Generation multiple award contract to 28 contractors for information technology services. The contract has a total maximum value of $22.3 billion. The VA Office of Inspector General (OIG) conducted this audit to determine whether task orders issued under the contract were administered according to federal and VA acquisition regulations, as well as VA national and local policies and procedures. The OIG also examined whether the TAC performed task order award and modification procedures according to applicable regulations and policy and took actions that reasonably ensured contractors could successfully complete contract requirements. While the OIG identified no violations of federal and VA acquisition regulations, the audit team found oversight weaknesses that, if not corrected, could increase the likelihood of VA conducting business with contractors unable to provide services according to contract requirements. These weaknesses place information technology systems and hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars at unnecessary risk and potentially harm VA’s ability to fulfill its mission to care for veterans. The OIG made recommendations to address identified deficiencies with improved procedures that program office contracting officer’s representatives and TAC contracting officers should perform. These include determining the method and level of detail required for contracting officer’s representatives to document their review of the acceptability of deliverables and procedures that will provide contracting officers the assurance this review was adequately completed. The OIG also recommended timeliness requirements for submitting performance assessments. Finally, the OIG recommended implementing procedures to monitor contracting officers’ actions through compliance reviews; assessing the risk related to removing certain past performance assessments from procedures; and defining actions to take when higher-risk financial stability risk scores are identified.