Tracking Government Contracts

Danielle Ivory, Bloomberg Newsdanielle.ivory@gmail.com@danielle_ivory

Government Contracting

FY2000 FY2001 FY2002 FY2003 FY2004 FY2005 FY2006 FY2007 FY2008 FY2009 FY2010 FY2011 FY2012

Non-defenseDefense

$512 billion

$215 billion

Competition? -- For competitive contracts, solicitation documents may be available online at FBO.gov

-- For non-competitive contracts, look for Justification & Approval (J&A) documents

Not so great J&As

Good J&As

“black out”“unconsciousness”

“past interruptions”

“Forced to share available suits”

GUESS WHO WON A COST-PLUS INDEFINITE DELIVERY INDEFINITE QUANTITY CONTRACT? YOLO.

www.fpds.gov/fpdsng_cms

This is what it looks like if you type “Lockheed” into the search bar

Last person who modified the contract

Award number

Money, Money, Money

Agency

Contractor (Not parent company)

Socio-economic info

Where the work is performed

Industry codes

Description

Extent that the contract was competed

Small business or not?

How many bidders?

Unfortunately, the contract won’t tell you which other companies bid on the award.

A few more databasesSAM: https://www.sam.gov/portal/public/SAM

Search basic records for all contractors and look up suspended and debarred contractors

Small Biz: http://dsbs.sba.gov/dsbs/search/dsp_dsbs.cfmSearch records of small business contractors

Protests: http://www.gao.gov/legal/bids/bidprotest.htmlSearch GAO bid protest records

Sorry, there’s no good database for subcontracts!

Danielle Ivory, Bloomberg News

Follow me on Twitter: @danielle_ivory

danielle.ivory@gmail.com