Reports
Government Accountability Office (GAO) Reports
GAO-14-126: "Selected Agencies Should Develop Performance Measures on Inclusion of Small Businesses and OMB Should Improve Monitoring" The Office of Management and Budget (OMB), the General Services Administration (GSA), and selected agencies have taken steps to consider small businesses, including small disadvantaged businesses, in their strategic sourcing efforts. Published: Jan 23, 2014. Publicly Released: Feb 24, 2014.
GAO-13-765T: "Improved and Expanded Use Could Provide Significant Procurement Savings" Most of the agencies GAO reviewed for its September 2012 report leveraged a fraction of their buying power. More specifically, in fiscal year 2011, the Departments of Defense (DOD), Homeland Security, Energy, and Veterans Affairs (VA) accounted for 80 percent of the $537 billion in federal procurement spending, but reported managing about 5 percent of that spending, or $25.8 billion, through strategic sourcing efforts. Similarly, GAO found that the Federal Strategic Sourcing Initiative had only managed a small amount of spending through its four government-wide strategic sourcing initiatives in fiscal year 2011, although it reported achieving significant savings on those efforts. Further, we found that most selected agencies' efforts did not address their highest spending areas, such as services, which may provide opportunities for significant savings. Published: Jul 15, 2013. Publicly Released: Jul 15, 2013.
GAO-13-417: "Leading Commercial Practices Can Help Federal Agencies Increase Savings When Acquiring Services" Officials from leading companies GAO spoke with reported saving 4-15 percent over prior year spending through strategically sourcing the full range of services they buy--a process that moves away from numerous individual purchases to an aggregate approach. The federal government and leading companies buy many of the same services, such as facilities management, engineering, and information technology. Published: Apr 15, 2013. Publicly Released: May 15, 2013.
GAO-13-408T: "Improved and Expanded Use Could Provide Procurement Savings for Federal Information Technology" In September 2012, GAO reported that many large procurement agencies were in the early stages of implementing strategic sourcing and had achieved limited results. For example, in fiscal year 2011, the Departments of Defense, Homeland Security, Energy, and Veterans Affairs accounted for 80 percent of the $537 billion in federal procurement spending, but reported managing about 5 percent of that spending, or $25.8 billion, through strategic sourcing efforts. These agencies reported savings of $1.8 billion--less than one-half of 1 percent of federal procurement spending. Further, most of these agencies' strategic sourcing efforts did not address their highest spending areas--including some information technology (IT)-related services--which may provide opportunities for additional savings. While strategic sourcing may not be suitable for all procurements, leading companies strategically manage about 90 percent of their procurements and report annual savings of 10 percent or more. When strategic sourcing contracts were used, federal agencies generally reported achieving savings between 5 and 20 percent. Published: Feb 27, 2013. Publicly Released: Feb 27, 2013.
GAO-12-919, “Strategic Sourcing: Improved and Expanded Use Could Save Billions in Annual Procurement Costs” (9/20/12), is the most recent in a series of GAO reports that address streamlining the federal government to reduce costs. This report is in direct response to an Office of Management and Budget (OMB) 2005 memorandum, “Implementing Strategic Sourcing,” directing agencies to use strategic sourcing. The report focuses on strategic sourcing as a method successfully used in the private sector to dramatically reduce procurement costs, an initiative OMB implemented in 2005.
GAO-12-919 heavily references two other GAO reports, GAO-11-318SP, “Government Operations: Opportunities to Reduce Potential Duplication in Government Programs, Save Tax Dollars, and Enhance Revenue” (3/1/2011), and the subsequent GAO-12-453SP, “Follow-up on 2011 Report: Status of Actions Taken to Reduce Duplication, Overlap, and Fragmentation, Save Tax Dollars, and Enhance Revenue” (2/28/2012), which made recommendations for specific actions that agencies could take to reduce costs, and provided the status of those actions. Several of the actions in these GAO reports make recommendations for DoD action relevant to strategic sourcing, and provide the status of these recommended actions.
Acquisition Status (AcqStat) Reviews
The Office of Federal Procurement Policy (OFPP) requires periodic AcqStat meetings with agencies to discuss their acquisition processes, including buying smarter with government-wide and agency-wide strategic sourcing. The purpose of these reviews is to provide an understanding of where the agency is having success, where it is having difficulty, and where OFPP can assist. While DoD’s reviews are not all-inclusive with regard to its strategic sourcing initiatives, they do provide useful highlights of the Department’s strategic sourcing activities.