Report Calls Surge in Federal Spending, No-Bid Contracts ‘Worrisome Trends’
Prepared for House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform Chairman Rep. Henry Waxman, D. Calif., the report asserts that the federal government in 2006 achieved several dubious firsts: Annual federal procurement spending topped $400 billion; more than half of that spending (more than $200 billion) came in the form of no-bid contracts; and “the total value of wasteful federal contracts now exceeds $1 trillion.”
The report – titled “More Dollars, Less Sense: Worsening Contract Trends Under the Bush Administration” – claims to be “the first comprehensive analysis of federal procurement data from 2006.”
Among its findings, the report asserts that:
- Procurement spending increased from $377.5 billion in 2005 to $412.1 billion in 2006. According to the report, contract spending has more than doubled since President Bush took office.
- Spending on no-bid and limited-competition contracts rose from $145.1 billion in 2005 to $206.9 billion in 2006, the largest single-year increase ever.
- 187 contracts – valued at $1.1 trillion – “have been plagued by waste, fraud, abuse or mismanagement.” “In the case of each of the problem contracts, the reports by independent government auditors and investigators have documented have documented substantial wasteful spending or poor contract management that occurred during the last six years.”
According to the report, the House committee researchers based their conclusions on the findings of more than 700 reports, audits and investigations by government and independent bodies. The researchers obtained contract spending data from the Eagle Eye Federal Prime Contracts Database, a federal procurement database application published by Eagle Eye Inc.
The full list of the 187 “problem contracts” is available in a searchable online database. To view the House report, click here.