The White House has called on agencies to cut spending on contracts for management support services by a minimum of 15 percent.
At a White House forum on accountability in contacting, chief performance officer Jeffrey Zients noted that costs for management support services increased from $10 to $40 billion from 2000 to 2010, outpacing the growth of contracting overall.
The 15 percent cuts are intended to save $6 billion and Zients said agency efforts in this regard would be tracked on the way to meeting the targets by the end of fiscal 2012.
The targets are part of the administration’s "campaign to cut government waste." In addition to the spending cuts, agencies may soon see stricter certification requirements for contracting officer representatives, and OMB is putting the onus on managers to identify and avoid overreliance on contractor expertise – especially where contractors are being used to manage other contactors, something Zients said was clearly unacceptable.
