Government Contracting Report Released by GAO

Earlier this month, the GAO released a comprehensive report detailing the trends in government contracting over a five-year period (from fiscal year 2011 through 2015). The entire report is available here. If you have a few hours to spare, it’s worth a read; if not, this post will summarize a few of its most eye-catching nuggets.

Off the bat, the report noted the massive amount of money spent on government contracts. In 2015, federal agencies procured over $430 billion in products and services—nearly 40 percent of the government’s discretionary spending. However, this amount represents a substantial decrease in government-wide contracting expenditures since 2011. Defense obligations decreased by nearly 31 percent over this time (dropping from $399 billion to $274 billion), while civilian obligations remained comparatively steady (nearly $176 billion in 2011 to $164 billion in 2015).

Interestingly, the report noted that approximately 2/3 of federal contracts were procured via competitive means during this time. Civilian agencies averaged higher competition rates (nearly 80 percent of solicitations, in 2015) than did defense agencies (only about 56 percent). Even still, a surprising number of competed contracts were effectively sole source awards—in 2015, 14 percent of competed solicitations were awarded to the sole offeror. READ MORE….