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GAO-13-133R 1 (2013-01-29)

handle is hein.gao/gaobacgvn0001 and id is 1 raw text is: JGAO Accountablty *Integrity * Reliability United States Government Accountability Office Washington, DC 20548 January 29, 2013 Congressional Committees Subject: Interagency Contracting: Agency Actions Address Key Management Challenges, but Additional Steps Needed to Ensure Consistent Implementation of Policy Changes Federal agencies collectively spend more than half a trillion dollars annually through contracts to acquire goods and services in support of their missions. One method for realizing efficiency in the procurement process is through the use of interagency contracting, where one agency either places an order directly against another agency's contract or uses the contracting services of another agency to obtain supplies or services. Interagency contracting can provide a number of benefits to agencies, helping them to streamline the procurement process, take advantage of unique expertise in a particular type of procurement, and achieve savings by leveraging the government's collective buying power. But these acquisitions also pose a variety of risks. We designated the management of interagency contracting as a high risk area in 2005, in part because of the need for stronger internal controls and clear definitions of agency roles and responsibilities.1 We subsequently reported on interagency contracting in 2010, and identified the need for governmentwide policies to govern the creation of interagency contract vehicles and better data to effectively oversee and manage them.2 Since then, key policy changes have been made to both guide the creation of new interagency contracts and strengthen the use of existing contract vehicles. For example, federal acquisition regulations have been revised and guidance has been created to require, among other things, that agencies formally document the roles and responsibilities in an interagency agreement for certain interagency acquisitions. We performed this review under the authority of the Comptroller General as part of our ongoing efforts to support congressional oversight of GAO's high-risk areas. We evaluated (1) progress made by the Office of Management and Budget's (OMB) Office of Federal Procurement Policy (OFPP) and the General Services Administration (GSA) in addressing issues identified in our 2010 report on interagency contracting, and (2) progress made by federal agencies in implementing policy changes related to the use of interagency contracts. To address our objectives, we reviewed corrective action plans developed by OFPP and GSA to respond to issues identified in our 2010 report, along with policy memorandums, guidance, and studies on efforts to address these issues. We also met with OFPP and GSA 1GAO, High-Risk Series: An Update, GAO-05-207 (Washington, D.C.: January 2005). 2GAO, Contracting Strategies: Data and Oversight Problems Hamper Opportunities to Leverage Value of Interagency and Enterprisewide Contracts, GAO-i 0-367 (Washington, D.C.: Apr. 29, 2010). GAO-1 3-133R Interagency Contracting Page 1

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