 For Immediate Release
Contact:
Beth
Daley or Scott Amey, 202-347-1122,
scott@pogo.org
A new Government Accountability Office report delves into the issue of decisions about companies being barred from future government contracts.
POGO
has criticized the government's practice of entering into special agreements behind closed doors with larger contractors as a way for those companies to avoid being barred. Now, the GAO report recommends making information about these "administrative agreements" and waivers publicly available.
This is a good step forward. However,
POGO
recommends that the government also collect and publish information that would help to inform its decisions about whether contractors are reputable; specifically data on criminal, civil, and administrative actions involving contractors.
POGO
has collected this data for the government's largest contractors as part of its Federal Contractor Misconduct Database (see http://www.pogo.org/db/).
POGO
is currently collecting updated data for this database which it will release later this year.
The GAO report "Federal Procurement: Additional Data Reporting Could Improve the Suspension and Debarment Process" (GAO-05-479, July 29) can be viewed here:
http://www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-05-479.
Highlights are here: http://www.gao.gov/highlights/d05479high.pdf
Founded in 1981, the Project On Government Oversight is an independent investigative non-profit whose mission is to expose corruption in order to achieve a more accountable federal government.
|
|
