Contracting Smarter, Saving More

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Contracting Smarter, Saving More
Posted by Danny Werfel on February 24, 2012 at 12:43 PM EST

From the start of the Administration, President Obama has charged agencies to cut waste and give the American people a government that is not only more affordable, but also more efficient and effective. One critical area for those efforts has been contracting.

Last year at this time, we reported that agencies turned the tide on contract spending – cutting spending for the first time in 13 years. Collectively agencies spent a remarkable $80 billion less on contracting than would have occurred had growth continued at the same rate as under the prior Administration. Today, we are pleased to report that we sustained this new era of fiscally responsible contracting in FY 2011, maintaining the reduced spending level of $535 billion achieved in 2010 as we have continued our aggressive campaign to keep costs down and deliver better value for the American taxpayers.

This marks the first time in almost two decades that spending has either declined or remained unchanged for two years in a row. In fact, had contract spending continued to grow at the same pace as it did in the last Administration, we would have spent $690 billion on contracts, or $155 billion more than agencies ended up spending in FY 2011. While there is much still to be done, we now can confirm what we’ve had good reason to believe for some time: that the promising results of FY 2010 demonstrated that we have moved in a sustainable way into an era of more accountable contract spending and getting a better return for every taxpayer dollar.

http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2012/02/ ... aving-more