S. 719, the Consultant Reform and Disclosure Act of 1981

The proposed Consultant Reform and Disclosure Act would clarify the authority for appointment and compensation of experts and consultants and provide statutory guidelines concerning the award of contracts for the procurement of consulting services, management and professional services, and special studies and analyses. For the most part, the proposed Act adequately balances the public's need for assurance that Federal funds for consulting services will be spent properly with the agencies' need to use these services to carry out Federal programs. Among the proposed revisions to the bill which GAO suggests are: the addition of a requirement for a brief description of the work performed by the contractor to help show the potential for contractor personnel to influence the report's conclusions and recommendations; the expansion of a requirement for an agency evaluation to include a requirement for agencies to evaluate the actions it took in response to any consultant's report containing recommendations to agency officials and approval of the evaluations by officials at least two levels above that of the program manager responsible for monitoring the consultant's performance; the elimination of a legislative requirement for a GAO audit or evaluation of agencies' implementation of the conflict-of-interest provision of the legislation; an alternative to the proposed budget transmittal reporting method to revise the present object class structure to give a clearer and more detailed breakdown of Federal contract workforce costs, including a revision and standardization of current budget justification documents and agency and Office of Management and Budget budget forms, instructions, and systems; a change in the Federal Procurement Data System categories which classify contracts as either contracts for goods or services and the provision of specific data on the costs and benefits of each contract; and the deletion of a requirement that each agency prepare a written justification for each consulting contract because the section is similar to legislation already enacted.