Federal Procurement: Smarter Buying Initiatives Can Achieve Additional Savings, but Improved Oversight and Accountability Needed, GAO-17-164: Published: Oct 26, 2016. Publicly Released: Oct 26, 2016.
“The federal government saved nearly $500 million over the past 5 years through “smarter buying”—such as leveraging the government’s collective buying power for things like office supplies. But that’s small change compared to what it could have saved. Smarter buying initiatives have the potential to transform how the government buys, but we found that agencies are not participating at the levels they could be—potentially leaving billions of dollars in savings on the table. As the Office of Management and Budget implements smarter buying for big-ticket items like IT, it should hold agencies accountable for actually using the initiatives. Federal agencies have saved millions through smarter buying initiatives, but they could be saving billions.”