By Alan Dowless
Know who you’re paying, how much and for what. It’s one of the most basic principles of procurement.
And if you’re in the public sector, be transparent.
While most government procurement professionals would agree wholeheartedly with both of these statements, in the case of the U.S. federal government, intent is not translating into action.
The Obama administration has pushed hard to be more transparent with how the government spends its money. In addition to the 2007 launch of USASpending.gov – a website that provides the public with detailed information on how their tax dollars are being spent – the administration is actively rolling out the Digital Accountability and Transparency Act (DATA Act), a law recently passed by Congress that expands the amount of federal spending data available to the public.
The results of this initiative, however, have been incredibly underwhelming so far. In fact, a recent report from the Government Accountability Office (GAO) found that USASpending.gov is missing more than $619 billion! Even worse: of the data that was recorded, less than 7% can be confirmed as accurate.
To quote Senator Tom Carper, D-Del, “that’s a problem.”
With the DATA Act now law, it’s time for federal procurement to completely revamp its approach to spend management. The urgency to solve this issue extends far beyond the need for more transparency. How can federal procurement expect to effectively cut costs and find new efficiencies if they don’t have a clear picture of what they are spending?
The answer is actually rather easy: they can’t. Thankfully, there’s also a simple solution: smarter, more effective spend analysis processes and technology.
In our next post, we’ll take a look at how the UK’s Government Procurement Service overcame similar spend management and transparency challenges with a government-wide commitment and investment in spend analysis.