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Where can I find information on what the government is spending money on through procurements?

CCS offers the following from our Staff Problem Solvers:

With government purchases of goods and services having grown to more than $300 Billion annually, it is clear that this is a huge market. With small businesses receiving preferences for these dollars, it is smart to figure out how those dollars are spent so that you can develop a targeted marketing plan.

There are numerous places to research this question, but they all suffer from certain inadequacies. The most popular, and supposedly the most reliable one, is the Federal Procurement Data System. The system is presently in transition to the “Next Generation” version and is scheduled to go live the end of this month.

This system is under the jurisdiction of the Administrator of the Office of Federal Procurement Policy (OFPP) within the Office of Management and Budget and was implemented in 1978. Since 1982, GSA has administered it on behalf of OFPP.

The data can be accessed from the web at https://www.fpds.gov, and the home page offers a quick start point for researching the statistics. There are several ready-made reports available, including the largest contractors, and total procurement dollars spent by agency. For example, in 2004 the National Gallery of Art awarded $12,988,269.49 in contracts.

The system may be the best available, but it is by no means perfect. In a report issued very recently on September 27, 2005, GAO raised several concerns about the new “Next Generation” system. Timeliness and accuracy of the data have always been a question. With so many agencies reporting in so many different formats, and often not having systems linked so that the data did not have to be entered multiple times in different systems, the data may never be 100% accurate. The new system does require more direct links to the FPDS computers, but DOD is lagging in implementation. Since this represents about 60% of all procurement dollars, the data can still be skewed.

GAO also questioned whether the new system had improved ease of use or access to the data. Ad hoc reports can be generated, and the data can be downloaded, but you have to understand the system fairly well. GSA has said that they are trying to create more “standard” reports to make the data more accessible and easier to understand. Another gap arises in the reporting of interagency contracting transactions. The inability to track these transactions effectively has caused GAO to identify it as a High Risk Area in January 2005.

There are also some agencies that provide additional data on their respective websites, but given the different ways of slicing the data, it is not possible to credibly compare agencies based on this data. Still, you should understand as much as you can about the agencies you are trying to do business with, and their websites are a good place to start.

NOTE: CCS is not authorized to practice law or accounting. This information should not be relied on in any particular facts you may have without checking with a properly licensed professional.