Data Collection Under the International Agreement on Government Procurement Could Be More Accurate and Efficient

The trade data system, established to collect data on U.S. Government procurement activity under the international Agreement on Government Procurement, is not functioning properly. Since the development of a system capable of collecting precise data would be difficult, the system collects approximate information on procurements covered by the agreement. However, the system did not perform even up to its limited capabilities in developing the 1981 data. It developed information that significantly overvalued covered procurements and did not fully report other essential information. Given the limited resources available and the low priority the collecting agencies place on the trade data system, GAO suggested to agency officials that they could best improve the accuracy and efficiency of this data collection effort by abolishing the trade data system and using the Federal Procurement Data System (FPDS) to collect this data. The agencies have taken steps toward implementing this suggestion.

GAO found that the trade data system is capable of collecting only approximate individual contract information and assigns one product and one agency to each contract, regardless of the number of different products and agencies involved. Thus, the system does not precisely reflect procurement under the agreement. In addition, although agencies report information into the system on a contract basis, they are required to implement the agreement on a product-by-product basis, determining whether to use the agreement procedures or to apply Buy American price preferences. Reported contracts could also contain both purchases covered by the agreement and those not subject to it. Therefore, the data system may overvalue covered U.S. Government procurements. GAO found that, due to a lack of resources and data processing guidelines, the system did not perform using 1981 data. In addition, agencies did not have adequate incentives to properly collect and submit these data.

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.

Director: Allan I. Mendelowitz Team: General Accounting Office: National Security and International Affairs Division Phone: (202) 512-4812