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- Addressed

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- Partially Addressed

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- Not Addressed

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- Consolidated or Other

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- Pending

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- Closed-Partially Addressed

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- Closed-Not Addressed

Year Identified: 2017

Area Number: 21

Area Type: Cost Savings & Revenue Enhancement

Action:

The Secretary of the Department of Energy (Energy) should take reasonable steps to regularly analyze agency-wide purchase card spend patterns to identify areas such as high-use vendors or frequently purchased commodities for further analysis.

Progress:

As of November 2017, Energy had gathered the necessary data for its new spend analytics databases. The agency provided GAO with a sample report from the system that demonstrated the agency’s ability to analyze purchase card spending for dollar value and number of transactions. Further, the sample report indicated that data from the system were the basis for ongoing in-depth analysis of a specific vendor that could result in future discounts for the agency. This new database should allow Energy to regularly analyze agency-wide purchase card spending for potential savings in the future. 

Action:

The Secretary of the Department of Defense (DOD) should direct the Office of Defense Procurement and Acquisition Policy to issue guidance or instruction to help ensure that components make reasonable efforts to analyze component-level purchase card spend patterns to identify areas for possible savings.

Progress:

In December 2017, DOD reported that it had taken steps to help ensure that its components analyze purchase card spending patterns, as recommended in GAO’s May 2016 report. DOD issued guidance in September 2016 asking components to perform analysis in 2017 and to report findings. DOD reported in October 2017 that the components completed their analyses and found that purchase card strategic sourcing analysis was already part of overall strategic sourcing efforts and that they may be expanded when appropriate. DOD drafted additional agency-wide guidance to support implementation of the September 2016 memorandum, encouraging components to identify recurring purchases and, where appropriate, use strategic sourcing contract vehicles for future acquisitions. 

Further, the Office of Defense Procurement and Acquisition Policy drafted language concerning strategic sourcing purchase card procurements. The language will be incorporated into the Defense Contracting Management Agency’s program management review guidance in 2018. These steps, if continued and properly implemented, should allow DOD components to analyze purchase card spending patterns for potential cost savings. 

Action:

The Secretaries of Defense, Veterans Affairs, the Interior, Homeland Security, and Energy, and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) should develop guidance that encourages local officials to examine purchase card spend patterns to identify opportunities to obtain savings and to share information on such efforts. Where applicable, these agencies should determine the feasibility for broader application of these efforts across the agency or organization.

Progress:

As of July 2019, all agencies have issued guidance to examine purchase card spending patterns, as recommended in GAO's May 2016 report. 

The Department of Homeland Security updated its purchase card guidance in November 2016 to, among other things, encourage component purchase card leads to conduct spending analysis to identify strategic sourcing opportunities. Recommended strategic sourcing opportunities are to be communicated via the Strategic Sourcing Program Office's email address located at the department's strategic sourcing web page, which is referenced in the purchase card.

GAO reported in March 2018 that the Department of Energy updated its purchase card guidance to encourage local offices to analyze and evaluate purchase card patterns to assess whether opportunities exist to leverage buying power. Further, the guidance describes tools available to conduct analysis and directs officials to send the results to the agency program coordinator to be reviewed for potential application across the department.

In September 2016, the Department of Defense issued guidance calling for component-level review of purchase card spending and asked certain components to brief their findings to the Purchase Card Senior Focus Group. These briefings found that purchase card spending analysis was incorporated into broader strategic sourcing analysis. Additional department-wide guidance on the subject was drafted, encouraging components to identify recurring purchases and, where appropriate, use strategic sourcing contract vehicles for future acquisitions. Further, the Office of Defense Procurement and Acquisition Policy drafted language concerning strategic sourcing purchase card procurements to be incorporated into the Defense Contracting Management Agency's program management review guidance. In June 2018, the department reported that these guidance updates were completed in April 2018. 

In July 2018, the Department of Veterans Affairs reported that its Office of Management had updated its purchase card guidance to include information on strategic sourcing. GAO found that the guidance notes the importance of strategic sourcing at both the national and local level and provides that purchase card supervisors are to review purchases and determine when it is in the best interest of the government to use a strategic sourcing option for particular goods or services. 

In July 2019, EPA provided GAO with recently-released guidance posted on its website meant to help EPA's contracting officers recognize opportunities for cost savings and develop solutions for smaller scale strategic sourcing-based contract vehicles. GAO found that the update asked contracting officers to perform an assessment of agency purchasing history including contracts, agreements, and purchase card spending and noted that analyses can be focused just on purchase card data. 

After transitioning to a new servicing bank which provided a new suite of tools for data analysis and reporting in November 2018, the Interior Department’s Office of Acquisition and Property Management issued a memorandum in July 2019 directing bureau procurement chiefs to use these tools to analyze purchase card transaction data at least semi-annually to identify opportunities to leverage buying power. It also provided further technical guidance on how to use the banking tools to perform periodic analysis.

As a result of all these steps, these agencies should have better insight into local purchase card spending patterns and potential opportunities for savings.