The Government Accountability Office raised issues the General Services Administration and the Office of Management and Budget should consider as they implement the next phase of a federal program that facilitates agencies’ procurement of commercial products through online portals.Those issues include the potential impact of the e-commerce program on current procurement initiatives; process to collect data on purchases made through online marketplaces; and metrics that GSA and OMB intend to use to assess the e-commerce program’s progress, GAO said in a report published Monday.
The congressional watchdog also assessed the implementation plan for the e-commerce program as part of the effort’s first phase and found that OMB and GSA described three online portal models: e-commerce, e-marketplace and e-procurement models.
One of the frameworks – e-procurement model — involves a third-party software provider that facilitates price comparisons across several online portals.
GAO said the implementation plan also suggests legislative changes that should be carried out to fully execute the e-commerce program.
