Lowest Price, Technically Acceptable (LPTA) contracts might save the government some money, but they deter innovation, a panel of government contracting officials said Monday (May 19, 2014).
“I don’t know a senior leader in government that thinks LPTA is the best,” said Tiffany Hixson, regional commissioner for the General Services Administration. “Contracting and innovation is about risk management.”
But with shrinking budgets, agencies are looking to lower their costs and LPTA contracts do just that, said Robert Coen, acting director of the National Institutes of Health Information Technology Acquisition and Assessment Center.
“There’s way too much LPTA going on,” Coen said at the May 19 ACT-IAC Management of Change Conference. “LPTA should be used for commodity buys, not innovations.”
Keep reading this article at: http://www.fiercegovernment.com/story/lpta-contracts-stifle-innovations-contracting-officials-say/2014-05-20
