GAO: Improve the data
The only system in the federal government that provides contracting information is hard to use and out of date, the Government Accountability Office said.
The only system in the federal government that provides contracting information is hard to use and out of date, the Government Accountability Office said in a letter last week.
The letter to Joshua Bolten, director of the Office of Management and Budget, details GAO's concerns and offers recommendations about the Federal Procurement Data System-Next Generation (FPDS-NG).
The General Services Administration had maintained FPDS until 2003, when the agency awarded a contract to Global Computer Enterprises (GCE) to modernize and manage the system, which was renamed FPDS-NG. The contract called for a two-year transition period that ends in October. GCE began providing information to the public through FPDS-NG in December 2004.
Among GAO's main concerns:
n The Defense Department, the largest contracting entity in government, is still not electronically submitting data to FPDS-NG.
n Although agencies were instructed to review and correct their data before connecting to FPDS-NG and certify the accuracy and completeness of their fiscal 2004 data, GSA has not provided system users with information about the accuracy of the information, contributing to lower user confidence.
n The system could not provide information on interagency contracting, such as when one agency uses a governmentwide acquisition contract held by another agency.
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