Merit Systems Protection Board: Costs Considered in Awarding Court Reporting Contracts

In response to a congressional request, GAO reviewed Merit Systems Protection Board (MSPB) court reporting contracts to determine: (1) whether a contract award the MSPB San Francisco Regional Office made for these services without considering the transcript costs that other government agencies or individuals purchased was an isolated incident, or whether other MSPB units regularly followed this practice; (2) whether there were other areas, such as scheduling hearings, where MSPB relied solely on its own costs; and (3) how MSPB procedures for evaluating costs for court reporting contracts and scheduling hearings compared with procedures other agencies used.