No Bid Contracting Becoming Common Practice These Days.

The term, No bid contracting is known as "sole source contract," which is much more accurate as it refers to a single corporation being given a contract, as opposed to the more lengthier process of competitive contract. "Urgency is often the rationale for sole source contracts."

The Bush Administration, especially after Hurricane Katrina made many no bid contracts, where companies such as Halliburton's Kellogg, Brown and Root (KBR), an American engineering and construction company were able to profit off of the disaster of Katrina, not to mention the 2003 invasion of Iraq.

Specifically, a part of the corruption of no bid contracts is what is described as "contracting charge pyramids," where the company doing the actual renovation receive an inadequate amount of the taxpayer's money given in the contracts.

In other cases, the Department of Homeland Security's counter-narcotics office was able to receive it's contract through the no-bidding process last year, a contract worth up to $579,000.

"Though small by government standards, the counter-narcotics contract illustrates the government's steady move away from relying on competition to secure the best deals for products and services.

A recent congressional report estimated that federal spending on contracts awarded without "full and open" competition has tripled, to $207 billion, since 2000, with a $60 billion increase last year alone. The category includes deals in which officials take advantage of provisions allowing them to sidestep competition for speed and convenience and cases in which the government sharply limits the number of bidders or expands work under open-ended contracts." [link]

The result of this increase in no-bid-contracting practice is higher prices for tax payers and an unreliable and limited number of contracts.

other sources:
Halliburton