Review of Allegations of Improper Contract Awards to Watkins Sinclair, LLC

This review was in response to a complaint that the Veterans Integrated Services Network (VISN) 7 made improper sole source contract awards to Watkins Sinclair, LLC. We identified 7 contracts and 11 purchase orders that were awarded to Watkins Sinclair in Fiscal Year 2008 – July 2009. Only one purchase order was awarded by VISN 7, which was a sole source award. We found that the contract file for this award did not provide adequate justification for the sole source award. Of the remaining awards to Watkins Sinclair, we found that six awards were not in compliance with the Competition in Contracting Act and the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR). Another award was an Indefinite Delivery-Indefinite Quantity contract of which eight of the task orders to the contract were not in compliance with the FAR. We recommended that the Under Secretary for Health ensure compliance with the Competition in Contracting Act and the FAR when awarding contracts using other than full and open competition and provide training to contracting officers regarding these provisions.