No-bid Pentagon contracts nearly tripled between 2001 and 2010

Evidence

In 2001, KBR won a one-year LOGCAP contract to provide an undefined quantity and an undefined value of “selected services in wartime.” Thanks to a series of one-year contract extensions, the company then enjoyed nearly eight years of work without facing a competitor’s bid. Overall, between 2001 and 2010, the number of Pentagon contracts issued without competitive bidding nearly tripled. “It’s like a gigantic monopoly,” a representative from Taxpayers for Common Sense said of LOGCAP. — David Vine, Base Nation_ How U.S. Military Bases…, 695

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the wider privatization-of-military-services literature and to the incentive-structure arguments in Milgrom on institutions.