The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has led to a surge of spending among federal agencies, particularly those with health and emergency response missions. As of June 11, agencies spent upward of $17.8 billion, much of which was not awarded through full and open competition.
Auditors at the Government Accountability Office did a deep dive into Federal Procurement Data System-Next Generation, searching for all contract obligations tagged with the COVID-19 National Interest Action code, as well as any awards containing the terms “coronavirus” and “COVID-19” in the contract description. In order to focus specifically on the pandemic response, “For contract actions over $1 million, we removed obligations that were identified in the contract description as not related to COVID-19,” according to a report published Wednesday.
Four agencies constituted 85% of spending governmentwide. Not surprisingly, about half of total spending—just shy of $9 billion—came from the Health and Human Services Department.
Also not surprising, the Defense Department—the perennial largest spender in government—had the second-largest spending total, with almost $3 billion obligated. The Homeland Security Department—$1.7 billion—and Veterans Affairs Department—$1.5 billion—round out the top four.
The remaining 38 agencies GAO reviewed totaled $2.6 billion.
The bulk of spending went toward medical and surgical equipment, including ventilators, respirators and personal protective equipment for health care workers. A much smaller but not inconsiderable amount—$2.1 billion—was put toward research and development of a vaccine to prevent future spread of the disease.
The report notes about $513 million was spent on “financial management support services,” $500 million of which was used by the Small Business Administration for “data analysis and loan recommendation services.”
But of the nearly $18 billion spent as of mid-June, more than half—53%—were not competitively awarded.
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