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Chapter 6. OBSOLETE STATUTES

Statutes Identified by DOD as Obsolete

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Statutes Identified by other Departments as Obsolete
Other Statutes Probably Obsolete

Chapter 7. LEGISLATIVE ACTION RECOMMENDATIONS

APPENDIXES

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CHAPTER 1

Introduction

This part of our report focuses on the technical aspects of procurement statutes. Preceding parts discussed and made recommendations dealing essentially with the policy and substantive aspects of the statutes. This part proposes recommendations for modernizing and improving their form, volume, and organization.

The first step in our examination of procurement-related statutes involved the preparation of a Preliminary Compilation of Laws Pertaining to Government Procurement, October 1970. This was used during the initial phase of the Commission Studies. Next, with the help of a LITE (Legal Information Through Electronics) search conducted by the Air Force LITE System and a poll of the procurement agencies, the entire United States Code and the latest Statutes at Large were examined. Approximately 4,000 statutory provisions relating to procurement were identified. Brief digests of these statutes were then prepared and processed through computer facilities of the Air Force Systems Command to produce a Table and Digest of Procurement-Related Laws, June 1971, and a Key-Word-In-Context Preliminary Index-Digest of Procurement-Related Laws, July 1971. The most important of these provisions were then broken down into some 70 categories for further review and analysis.'

Based on our examination, several general observations are relevant. The existing procurement-related statutes take many forms.

1 Copies of our Preliminary Compilation, Table and Digest, and Index Digest of the Procurement-Related Laws are being filed with this report. Arrangements have been made with the Aeronautical Systems Division, Air Force Systems Command, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, to retain the computer tapes indefinitely for use by the congressional committees and executive agencies in acting upon the statutory revisions recommended in this report.

Some are permanent (such as the Federal Property and Administrative Services Act) and some are temporary (such as annual authorization and appropriation acts). Many expressly refer to procurement by itself; some to procurement and other functions; and others to broad programs, controls, or procedures affecting or affected by procurement. Some of the statutes apply to all or most Federal agencies and programs; others apply to one or only a few agencies or programs.

In one way or another procurement is affected or controlled by statutory provisions relating to:

Organization and charter acts

Program and project budgeting, authorizations, and appropriations

Contract and fund accountability and controls

Award and selection procedures
Contract types

Contract pricing, costs, and profits
Contract administration
Contract remedies

Social and economic goals

Conflicts of interest and contract integrity
Procurement regulations

National emergencies.

Our studies disclosed numerous problems in the procurement statutes. Some of the problems are substantive, while others are essentially technical and result from the great number and complexity of statutes, overlaps and duplication, ambiguities, conflicts, inconsistencies, and obsolescences as well as the uncoordinated distribution and organization of statutes.

To a large extent, these problems can be traced to the piecemeal evolution of procurement statutes, sporadic efforts to deal with

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