The Air Force awarded $23 million in sole-source contracts to Boeing Co. to provide spare parts for AWACS surveillance aircraft without properly evaluating the price, according to a Government Accountability Office report.
Since late 2001, the Air Force has purchased three ailerons, wing components that stabilize the aircraft, for $1.4 million, a 442 percent increase from when the part was last purchased in 1986, the report said. During the same period, the Air Force has purchased 24 cowlings, metal engine coverings, for about $7.9 million, up 354 percent.
"Although some price increases could be expected, contracting officers did not take appropriate steps to ensure that the prices paid . . . were fair and reasonable," the report said. It found that in negotiating the price of the wing components, the Air Force did not adequately consider advice from another Pentagon agency "that showed a much lower price was warranted."
The parts were for the fleet of 33 Airborne Warning and Control Systems (AWACS) planes, which identify and track other aircraft.
The report also cited officials overseeing the AWACS program as saying the Air Force is a "captured customer" of Boeing because it is the only source for many parts in Boeing-manufactured planes.
The Department of Defense said it would ask the Air Force to develop a strategy to promote competition.
The GAO did not say Boeing "unfairly or inappropriately priced these items," the company said in a response included in the report. "Rather, they are suggesting that had the government chosen to compete the acquisition of these items, they may have procured them at a lesser price from another source."
