The Government Accountability Office has recommended the Office of Federal Procurement Policy to monitor agencies’ use of the General Services Administration‘s strategic sourcing initiatives in an effort to increase potential savings.GAO said Wednesday agencies reportedly saved a total of $129 million through the Federal Strategic Sourcing Initiative in fiscal year 2015 but savings could have reached up to $1.3 billion if more goods and services were acquired through FSSIs.
The agency added $4.5 billion out of $6.9 billion that agencies spent on goods and services is “addressable” through FSSIs but agencies only spent $462 million through the sourcing initiatives.
Federal agencies that govern FSSI directed 10 percent of their total spending to FSSIs which contributed to the low use of the initiatives, the GAO report says.
FSSI guidance requires agencies to create plans to transition from existing agency contract vehicles to FSSIs but OFPP and GSA officials have yet to collect or evaluate the plans to monitor FSSI use, GAO said.
GAO recommended for OFPP to oversee agencies’ submission of transition plans, FSSI use, and agency-specific targets and performance metrics that support the adoption of FSSI and category management practices.
FSSI was established to implement strategic sourcing measures to address decentralized federal government purchasing that leads to duplicative contracts.
