The federal government is not getting the biggest bang for its buck when it comes to contracts for goods and services, the Government Accountability Office revealed this week.
Contracting officers, in violation of federal procurement regulations, are not getting enough bids and frequently don’t seek discounts, the study of Pentagon, Health and Human Services and General Services Administration acquisitions released Monday found.
The report, requested by Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee Chairman Ron Johnson, R-Wis., and ranking Democrat Tom Carper of Delaware, examined only those three departments because they are the biggest users of federal supply schedules, which offers departments a simplified way of making volume purchases.
Contracting officers did not seek discounts 36 percent of the time, a violation of purchasing requirements. The study did not say how much that translated into in extra cost to the government because it was not possible to calculate, a GAO spokesman said.
“Agencies are paying insufficient attention to prices when using” the bulk system, the report read. “GAO found cases in which officials did not assess prices for certain items, as required, or had insufficient information to assess prices.”
Additionally, the agencies sought three or more bids only 40 percent of the time, turning to a preselected group of companies that are contacted directly about the opportunities the majority of the time. Health and Human Services was the worst at seeking multiple bids — 51 percent of the time turning to no more than two vendors for quotes.
“If government employees simply treated taxpayer money as if it were their own, we’d save hundreds of millions in contracting costs,” Johnson said about the report’s findings.
Carper compared the lack of shopping around to buying a car.
“Most Americans know that when buying a car, you should never just accept the sticker price as the final price, and you should always shop around,” Carper said. “Too often, one federal agency has no idea what another agency has paid for the same good or service. We can and should fix that.”
According to Johnson’s office, GSA has two initiatives underway to address the problem. The first would require contractors to report whether they had been asked for a discount. The other involves price sharing across the government so that departments can demand price matches.
In response to the draft report, the Pentagon updated and recirculated its contracting handbook and website last month.
