Spending Grant Funds More Efficiently Could Save Millions

In fiscal year 1979, the federal government spent over $95 billion funding grant programs in areas such as health and welfare, education, transportation, and environmental protection. A substantial portion of the grant funds were used to purchase goods and services. GAO identified a number of areas where procurement improvements by state, local, and nonprofit organizations could result in substantial savings and more effective use of federal grant dollars. Such areas include: adhering to competitive bidding requirements, requiring public notification of procurements, obtaining and recording informal price quotes on small purchases, using brand name purchase descriptions properly, insuring that only the minimum quantity and quality of items are purchased, adopting safeguards and controls to protect against favoritism and collusion, and eliminating local purchase preferences which increase costs by unduly restricting competition. Additional federal grant dollars could be saved if state and local recipients took greater advantage of centralized purchasing, commercial warehousing and distribution systems, and federal excess and surplus property.

GAO found that grant recipients were unduly restricting competition to personal preference items through improper use of brand name purchase descriptions, splitting purchases to avoid competitive bidding requirements, and making unnecessary and excessive purchases. Attachment O to Office of Management and Budget Circulars A-102 and A-110 established standards and guidelines for procuring supplies, equipment, construction, and services for federal grant programs. GAO believes that revisions to the guidelines could contribute to better procurement practices.

Recommendations

Our recommendations from this work are listed below with a Contact for more information. Status will change from "In process" to "Open," "Closed - implemented," or "Closed - not implemented" based on our follow up work.

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