PBCA Update

Our last update on contract administrators was that HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan announced that he would be asking Congress to allow HUD to bypass the bid process completely and simply award contract administration funds to state housing agencies.

On May 21, 2014 the House Appropriations Committee approved its FY 2015 T-HUD Appropriations bill. As part of that bill, the Committee rejected HUD’s request to overturn the Federal Appeals Court’s decision which required HUD to rebid its PBCA NOFA as a procurement (RFP – Request for Proposals). The Committee Report stated:

“Section 8 contract administration.—The Committee concurs with decisions by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) and the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit that HUD’s contracts for performance based contract administrator (PBCA) services are procurement contracts. The recommendation rejects the request to give HUD authority to administer PBCA funds as grants or cooperative agreements and directs HUD to follow the law and GAO by soliciting and awarding procurement contracts under full and open competition and without geographic limitations. The Committee further directs HUD to carry out these procurement processes in a manner that is compliant with requirements under the Federal Acquisition Regulation and the Competition in Contracting Act.”

HUD has extended the current PBCA contracts through December 31, 2014 (the last allowable extension unless further extensions are authorized). The 11 uncontested states are still performing regular MORs (Management/Occupancy Reviews) since their extended contract includes them. The 42 contested states are prohibited from performing MORs of any type (regular, voluntary, cursory, mock, etc.) since their extended contract does not include them.

HUD’s new Secretary, Julian Castro (who is replacing Shaun Donovan) should be directing the issuance of a new RFP when he takes over. We expect that awards will be made within 18-24 months, and that HUD will continue to extend current contracts until new ones are in place.