	Most SARA Panel Recommendations Are Consistent with GAO’s Past Work

The 89 recommendations in the panel report are largely consistent with  our past work and recommendations. Our work is generally consistent with the panel’s recommendations, and  we have issued numerous products that address the importance of a  robust requirements definition process and the need for competition. Accordingly,  the panel made numerous recommendations to improve the use of  interagency contracts with the intent of enhancing competition, lowering  prices, improving the expertise of the acquisition workforce, and  improving guidance for choosing the most appropriate interagency  contract for procurements. The panel made  recommendations to change the guidance to contracting officers for  awarding contracts to small businesses. OFPP has  taken the position that all but one of the recommendations requires  legislation to implement. While our work on small business has addressed  a number of policy issues, we have not made recommendations for  statutory and regulatory changes when arguments for such changes are  based on value judgments, such as those related to setting small business  contracting goals. The panel reported that, in some cases, contractors are solely  or predominantly responsible for the performance of mission-critical  functions that were traditionally performed by government employees,  such as acquisition program management and procurement, policy  analysis, and quality assurance. Further, the panel noted that this  development has created issues with respect to the proper roles of, and  relationships between, federal employees and contractor employees in the  “blended” workforce. Moreover,  according to the panel, as the federal workforce shrinks, there is a need to  ensure that agencies have sufficient in-house expertise and experience to  perform inherently governmental functions by being in a position to make  critical decisions on policy and program management issues and to  manage the performance of contractors. As early as 1994, we reported that the usefulness of federal  procurement data for conducting procurement policy analysis was limited. OFPP Plans to Address Most SARA Panel Recommendations

OFPP representatives told us the office agrees with almost all of the 89  panel recommendations and has already acted on some, while potential  actions are pending on others. Although OFPP has taken some steps to track the progress of selected  recommendations, it does not have an overall strategy or plan to gauge the  successes and shortcomings in how the panel’s recommendations are  implemented and how they improve federal acquisitions. Table 1 shows  how OFPP expected the 89 recommendations to be implemented. Conclusions and Recommendation

In closing, the SARA Panel, like GAO, has made numerous  recommendations to improve federal government acquisition—from  encouraging competition and adopting commercial practices to improving  the accuracy and usefulness of procurement data. To do this, we recommended in our recent  report that OFPP work with the chief acquisition officers and senior  procurement officials across all the federal agencies to lay out a strategy  or plan that includes milestones and reporting requirements that OFPP  could use to establish accountability, exercise oversight, and gauge the  progress and results of implementing the recommendations.
Why GAO Did This Study

A growing portion of federal spending is related to buying services such as administrative, management, and information technology support. Services accounted for about 60 percent of total fiscal year 2006 procurement dollars. The Services Acquisition Reform Act (SARA) of 2003 established an Acquisition Advisory Panel to make recommendations for improving acquisition practices. In January 2007, the panel proposed 89 recommendations to improve federal acquisition practices. GAO was asked to testify on how the panel recommendations compare to GAO's past work and identify how the Office of Federal Procurement Policy (OFPP) expects the recommendations to be addressed. This statement is based on GAO's analysis of the advisory panel's report. GAO's analysis is included in its December 2007 report titled, Federal Acquisition: Oversight Plan Needed to Help Implement Acquisition Advisory Panel Recommendation, (GAO-08-160).

What GAO Found

The SARA Panel, like GAO, has made numerous recommendations to improve federal government acquisition--from encouraging competition and adopting commercial practices to improving the accuracy and usefulness of procurement data. The recommendations in the SARA Panel report are largely consistent with GAO's past work and recommendations. The panel and GAO have both pointed out the importance of a robust requirements definition process and the need for competition; the need to establish clear performance requirements, measurable performance standards, and a quality assurance plan to improve the use of performance-based contracting; the risks inherent in the use of interagency contracts because of their rapid growth and their improper management; stresses on the federal acquisition workforce and the need for a strategy to assess these workforce needs; concerns about the role of contractors engaged in managing acquisition and procurement activities performed by government employees and the proper roles of federal employees and contractor employees in a "blended" workforce; and the adverse effects of inaccurate and incomplete federal procurement data, such as not providing a sound basis for conducting procurement analyses. The panel also made recommendations that would change the guidance for awarding contracts to small businesses. While GAO's work has addressed some small business policy issues, GAO has not made recommendations that would change the guidance to be used for awarding contracts to small businesses. OFPP representatives told GAO that OFPP agrees with almost all of the panel recommendations and expected that most of the 89 panel recommendations would be implemented through one of the following means: congressional actions; changes to the Federal Acquisition Regulation; OFPP actions, such as issuing new or revised policy; and federal agency actions. OFPP has already acted on some SARA recommendations, while other actions are pending or under consideration. Milestones and reporting requirements are in place to help OFPP gauge the implementation status of some recommendations but not for others. Moreover, OFPP does not have a strategy or plan to allow it to exercise oversight and establish accountability for implementing all of the panel's recommendations and to gauge their effect on federal acquisitions.