Contracting Data Misreported by Commerce Department

Commerce not accurately reporting contracting data to FPDS-NG database

Source: FierceGovernment, Article written by Ryan McDermott, published on June 25, 2015

The Commerce Department isn’t accurately reporting contracting data to the federal government’s main procurement database, says a June 19 Commerce inspector general report.

The IG originally initiated the investigation to determine whether contracting officials effectively managed undefinitized actions, or a contract for which the terms, specifications or price are not agreed upon before the work is started. Undefinitized actions are only meant to be used to meet an urgent requirement, the report (pdf) says.

But because NOAA and NIST incorrectly coded some of their contract actions as undefinitized in the Federal Procurement Data System-Next Generation, or FPDS-NG, the IG redirected the investigation to see how much of the reported data is accurate.

The IG found that NOAA and NIST incorrectly coded 74 action as undefinitized in the FPDS-NG, the federal government’s central database of information on federal procurement actions. The contracting actions totaled about $11.4 million, the report says.

Read the full story at http://www.fiercegovernment.com/story/ig-commerce-not-accurately-reporting-contracting-data-fpds-ng-database/2015-06-25


 

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