As federal agencies are slated to spend almost $80 billion on federal information technology (“IT”) acquisitions this fiscal year and the OMB prepares to issue its final guidance on the Federal Information Technology Acquisition Reform Act (“FITARA”), GAO has released two reports this month that discuss ongoing efforts to improve IT procurement.  Combined with GAO’s recent addition of IT acquisitions and operations to its list of high-risk programs (which we previously discussed), these new reports underscore GAO’s ongoing emphasis on reforming IT acquisitions to reduce redundancy and increase efficiency.

In the first report, GAO added federal software licenses to its list of twenty-four areas in which it discovered evidence of fragmentation, overlap, or duplication in federal government programs.  Citing its May 2014 report on federal agencies’ management of software licenses, GAO explained that a vast majority of agencies do not have sufficient policies to manage their software licenses.  According to GAO, this mismanagement results in over-purchasing licenses, which leads to unnecessary spending, and under-purchasing licenses, which leads to fees for violating licensing agreements.  Therefore, GAO reemphasized that agencies should implement software license management policies that, among other things, provide for centralized management of software licenses and ensure that a software license inventory is created and maintained.

In addition to adding federal software licenses to its list of areas prone to fragmentation, duplication, and overlap, GAO discussed additional ways for Congress and executive branch agencies to reduce unnecessary duplication and spending in critical IT areas.  Specifically, GAO emphasized the importance of OMB’s efforts to identify opportunities for consolidation of federal data centers and encouraged agencies to complete their data center inventories and implement their consolidation plans.  In addition, GAO noted that close to three-quarters of the almost $80 billion in federal IT spending this fiscal year will be used on the operation and maintenance of legacy investments.  In light of this spending, GAO encouraged agencies to ensure that these legacy systems continue to meet their needs, deliver value, and do not unnecessarily overlap with other investments.

GAO also noted that agencies could better utilize the OMB’s PortfolioStat initiative to manage their existing IT systems.  PortfolioStat requires agencies to conduct annual, agency-wide reviews of IT portfolios with a view towards reducing IT spending and ensuring that their IT investments align with their missions and business functions.  Citing to its more than 60 past recommendations to agencies and the OMB related to the PortfolioStat initiative, GAO encouraged wider execution of this program.  A second GAO report, released last week, underscores the agencies’ ongoing struggles in the implementation of the PortfolioStat initiative.  GAO noted that the agencies have reduced their projected PortfolioStat savings by almost 70 percent, or $3.8 billion, for fiscal years 2013 to 2015.  The Department of Defense and Homeland Security accounted for most of the difference, as they reported a reduction of approximately $3.5 billion in anticipated savings.  GAO further reported that only nine of 26 agencies have met their reduced cost-saving estimates for fiscal years 2013 and 2014.  That said, GAO noted the difficulty in calculating the agencies’ cost savings due to inconsistencies in how savings are reported.  Specifically, GAO explained that agencies have other cost saving initiatives, such as the consolidation of federal data centers, that they have reported as part of their PortfolioStat savings to OMB, but not GAO, and visa-versa.

These recent GAO reports further underscore the ongoing struggles in reforming IT acquisitions and operations, as well as the difficulty of tracking progress in this area.  These struggles will make it increasingly difficult for government contractors to anticipate and respond to agencies’ IT acquisition needs.  As a result, the IT contracting community would be well advised to continue monitoring IT acquisition reforms, especially as OMB issues its final guidance on FITARA later this year.

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Photo of Jennifer Plitsch Jennifer Plitsch

Jennifer Plitsch leads the firm’s Government Contracts Practice Group, where she works with clients on a broad range of issues arising from both defense and civilian contracts including contract proposal, performance, and compliance questions as well as litigation, transactional, and legislative issues.

She…

Jennifer Plitsch leads the firm’s Government Contracts Practice Group, where she works with clients on a broad range of issues arising from both defense and civilian contracts including contract proposal, performance, and compliance questions as well as litigation, transactional, and legislative issues.

She has particular expertise in advising clients on intellectual property and data rights issues under the Federal Acquisition Regulations (FAR) and obligations imposed by the Bayh-Dole Act, including march-in and substantial domestic manufacturing. Jen also has significant experience in negotiation and compliance under non-traditional government agreements including Other Transaction Authority agreements (OTAs), Cooperative Research and Development Agreements (CRADAs), Cooperative Agreements, Grants, and Small Business Innovation Research agreements.

For over 20 years, Jen’s practice has focused on advising clients in the pharmaceutical, biologics and medical device industry on all aspects of both commercial and non-commercial agreements with various government agencies including:

  • the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA);
  • the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), including the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA), the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and the Centers for Disease Control (CDC);
  • the Department of Defense (DoD), including the Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA), the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), and the Joint Program Executive Office for Chemical Biological Defense (JPEO-CBRN); and
  • the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID).

She regularly advises on the development, production, and supply to the government of vaccines and other medical countermeasures addressing threats such as COVID-19, Ebola, Zika, MERS-CoV, Smallpox, seasonal and pandemic influenza, tropical diseases, botulinum toxin, nerve agents, and radiation events. In addition, for commercial drugs, biologics, and medical devices, Jen advises on Federal Supply Schedule contracts, including the complex pricing requirements imposed on products under the Veterans Health Care Act, as well as on the obligations imposed by participation in the 340B Drug Pricing program.

Jen also has significant experience in domestic sourcing compliance under the Buy American Act (BAA) and the Trade Agreements Act (TAA), including regulatory analysis and comments, certifications, investigations, and disclosures (including under the Acetris decision and Biden Administration Executive Orders). She also advises on prevailing wage requirements, including those imposed through the Davis-Bacon Act and the Service Contract Labor Standards.