United States Government Publishing Office publisher pbl distributor dst United States Government Accountability Office General Government Division author aut Government Organization text government publication eng GAOREPORTS Legislative Agency Publications gao legislative 2010-08-12 U.S. Government Printing Office 1996-09-19 monographic deposited born digital 14 p. GA 1.13:T-GGD-96-169 https://www.govinfo.gov/app/details/GAOREPORTS-T-GGD-96-169 P0b002ee1803884b2 f:gg96169t DGPO 2010-08-12 2011-03-24 GAOREPORTS-T-GGD-96-169 machine generated eng fdlp REPORT GAOREPORTS-T-GGD-96-169 T-GGD-96-169 Contract administration Privatization Federal procurement Cost effectiveness analysis Contract monitoring Federal procurement policies Proposed legislation Competitive procurement Testimony GGD GAO discussed S. 1724, the Freedom From Government Competition Act, which would require that the government procure from the private sector the goods and services it needs to carry out its functions. GAO noted that: (1) the amount of government contracting is already extensive, and most government agencies rely heavily on contractors to provide commercial services; (2) the proposed act would greatly increase the proportion of government activity carried out by private contractors; (3) the three exceptions to the act's goal of promoting private contracting occur when the goods or services are inherently governmental, government performance is needed to protect national security, or commercial practices cannot fulfill unique agency requirements; (4) the nondiscretionary nature of the proposed act would settle most of the disagreement over private contracting; (5) a number of other considerations need to be addressed, including the utility of retaining some government services to use as benchmarks for evaluating contractors, whether some government services are less costly than contracting, whether adequate competition exists, and whether the leasing of public facilities should be retained; (6) increasing federal contracting may overwhelm federal workload capacities and be very optimistic; and (7) persistent contract management problems and federal downsizing may also adversely affect the government's ability to increase and adequately monitor federal contracting. https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GAOREPORTS-T-GGD-96-169/html/GAOREPORTS-T-GGD-96-169.htm https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GAOREPORTS-T-GGD-96-169/pdf/GAOREPORTS-T-GGD-96-169.pdf GAO/T-GGD-96-169 https://www.govinfo.gov/app/details/GAOREPORTS-T-GGD-96-169 Testimony GAO/T-GGD-96-169; Federal Contracting: Comments on S. 1724, the Freedom From Government Competition Act; Contract administration Privatization Federal procurement Cost effectiveness analysis Contract monitoring Federal procurement policies Proposed legislation Competitive procurement