1. Tracking Government Contracts
Danielle Ivory, Bloomberg News
danielle.ivory@gmail.com
@danielle_ivory

2. Government Contracting
FY2000 FY2001 FY2002 FY2003 FY2004 FY2005 FY2006 FY2007 FY2008 FY2009 FY2010 FY2011 FY2012
Non-defense
Defense
$512 billion
$215 billion

3. Competition?
-- For competitive
contracts, solicitation
documents may be
available online at
FBO.gov
-- For non-competitive
contracts, look for
Justification & Approval
(J&A) documents

4. Not so great J&As

5. Good J&As
“black out”
“unconsciousness”
“past interruptions”
“Forced to share available suits”

7. www.fpds.gov/fpdsng_cms

8. This is what it looks like if you type
“Lockheed” into the search bar

9. Last person
who modified
the contract
Award number
Money, M
ney, Mone

10. Agency
Contractor (Not parent company)
Socio-economic info

11. Where the work
is performed
Industry
codes
Description

12. Extent that the
contract was
competed
Small business or not?
How many
bidders?
Unfortunately, the contract won’t tell you which
other companies bid on the award.

13. A few more databases
 SAM: https://www.sam.gov/portal/public/SAM
Search basic records for all contractors and look up
suspended and debarred contractors
 Small Biz:
http://dsbs.sba.gov/dsbs/search/dsp_dsbs.cfm
Search records of small business contractors
 Protests:
http://www.gao.gov/legal/bids/bidprotest.html
Search GAO bid protest records
Sorry, there’s no good database for subcontracts!

14. Danielle Ivory, Bloomberg News
Follow me on Twitter: @danielle_ivory
danielle.ivory@gmail.com