Regular readers of The Daily Caveat are probably aware of my fandom of the GAO, the congressional oversite body for government spending and program implementation. GAO reports provide some of the most interesting reading to come out of the federal bureaucracy and often point the way to problems that don't filter their way into the mass consciousness until much later. One recent report may garner some attention, given the Bagdad on the Bayou theme that has started to emerge on editorial pages in the wake of Iraq-style no-bid contracts being awared for hurricane disaster relief projects.

The GAO recently published a paper [PDF required] highlighting the poor performace of the federal government's database of excluded constractors. The database is designed to prevent the rehiring of contractors who have been found guilty of past abuses of their government contracts. Federal agencies are obligated to check potential contractors against the database, in order to, in the GAO's own words,

"...help ensure excluded contractors do not unintentionally receive new contracts during the period of exclusion, the Federal Acquisition Regulation requires contracting officers to consult the Excluded Parties List System --a government-wide database on exclusions--and identify any competing contractors that have been suspended or debarred."

According to the Washington Business Journal, the GAO found that due to problems with the database, "Some government contractors that have been suspended or debarred because of past problems may be getting new contracts..." The GAO also found that, "Nearly 99 percent of the records in the database do not include contractor identification numbers, a GAO sampling found. Without that number, agencies have to search the database by the contractor's name. Some contractors may slip through the cracks if their name has changed, according to GAO."

The GAO describes the problems a bit further in their report summary:

"...as of November 2004, about 99 percent of records in EPLS for the 6 agencies we reviewed in depth did not have contractor identification numbers--a unique identifier that enables agencies to conclude confidently whether a contractor has been excluded. In the absence of these numbers, agencies use the company's name to search EPLS, which may not identify an excluded contractor if the contractor's name has changed. Further, information on administrative agreements and compelling reason determinations is not routinely shared among agencies. Such information could help agencies in their exclusion decisions and promote greater transparency and accountability."

Check out the full Washington Business Journal article here. The GAO report summary is located here and the full report can be found here. Warts and all, the Federal Contractors Abuse Database is searchable here.

-- MDT

Labels: database, GAO