Ad Council

Over the last decade, the government has awarded nearly a third of its advertising, marketing and public relations business without full and open competition designed to ensure taxpayers get the best price. 

Many of the contracts were awarded without full bidding even though the work involved predictable or routine tasks far removed from the urgent or national security circumstances originally envisioned for exempting contracts from the normal procurement rigors, an investigation by the Washington Guardian and Medill News Service found.