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At all levels of government, inconsistencies exist regarding the terminology and the body of knowledge used to understand public procurement. Perspectives on what public procurement is, or should be, ranges from routine ordering to sophisticated analysis of government spending. Definitional ambiguities have hampered attempts to define the field and unify its focus. This exploratory article examines the implications of the muddled nature of public procurement that has led to debate and uncertainty about the proper role of public procurement practitioners. To address these limitations, three dimensions of all public procurement systems are identified, and a general definition is proposed for describing the field and its institutionalized practices.

To improve acquisition outcomes, in 1997 the District established the Office of Contracting and Procurement under the direction of a newly created chief procurement officer (CPO). Since then, the District's inspector general and auditor have identified improper contracting practices. This report examines whether the District's procurement system is based on procurement law and management and oversight practices that incorporate generally accepted key principles to protect against fraud, waste, and abuse. GAO's work is based on a review of generally accepted key principles identified by federal, state, and local procurement laws, regulations, and guidance. GAO also reviewed District audit reports and discussed issues with current and former District officials as well as select state and local officials.

This paper examines automated contract writing systems, a vital aspect of public procurement which has replaced the more manual methods of drafting of contracts used in the past. Using the system of the U.S. federal government as an illustration, the various components of a contract writing system are detailed and discussed, distinguishing contract writing from eprocurement and demonstrating how a bifurcated approach has been adopted for contracting automation. The larger implications of this dual nature are analyzed along with misconceptions about contract writing systems and the contrast between the perspectives of procurement versus finance. Future research devoted more to cross-disciplinary issues and human factors affecting contract writing, rather than just systems development issues, may offer an opportunity to improve the effectiveness of public procurement automation.

Acquisition of products and services from contractors consumes about a quarter of discretionary spending governmentwide and is a key function in many federal agencies. In fiscal year 2005 alone, federal government contracting involved over $388 billion. The work of the government is increasingly being performed by contractors, including in emergency and large-scale logistics operations such as hurricane response and recovery and the war in Iraq. Many agencies rely extensively on contractors to carry out their basic missions. The magnitude of the government's spending and dependence on contractors make it imperative that this function be performed as efficiently and effectively as possible. Yet, acquisition issues are heavily represented on GAO's list of government highrisk areas. In the 21st century, the government needs to reexamine and evaluate its strategic and tactical approaches to acquisition. To identify and discuss the key issues confronting the federal acquisition community, the Comptroller General hosted a forum in July 2006 that brought together acquisition experts from inside and outside the government. Participants shared their insights on challenges and opportunities for improving federal acquisition in an environment of increasing reliance on contractors and severe fiscal constraint.

In 2006, the U.S. Defense Acquisition Executive approved a program at the Naval Postgraduate School to solicit, evaluate, and fund proposals for innovative and scholarly acquisition research. This paper presents an exploratory analysis of proposals from 2007 to the present. It seeks to provide an understanding of the types and sources of research proposals, and the extent to which the programʼs goal has been achieved. Cluster and trend analyses classify and examine the data according to several key aspects, such as: topical area (e.g., contracting, logistics); research type (e.g., exploratory, hypothesis testing); research design (e.g., case study, experiment); and type of analysis (e.g., comparative, statistical). The results show positive trends, but the number of institutions with interest in defense acquisition remains low, suggesting that it remains a limited niche research topic.

The federal government purchased goods and services valued at approximately $100 billion from small businesses in FY 2003, which was up from previous years. Moreover, in FY 2003, the federal government exceeded its small business contracting goal of 23 percent. Despite such achievements, implementation of the acquisition reforms enacted in the 1990s has limited small businesses’ access to the federal procurement market. Federal agencies have, for instance, not met their goals for women, minorities, or veterans, and contract bundling and purchase cards may restrict small business opportunities. Meanwhile, both judicial actions and a reduction in the number of acquisition workers complicate matters. This paper discusses each of these issues and offers five recommendations that, if fully implemented, should ensure a brighter future for small businesses in the federal government marketplace.

Court decisions, based largely on principles of equal protection and non-discrimination, throw out laws with preferences for open source software, demonstrating that such laws are not only bad public policy, but may also be illegal, and that neutrality and choice in software procurement is the better approach.

Despite Congressional and Presidential emphasis on reducing bundling and consolidation of defense contracts, recent studies cast doubt on whether such practices are problematic for small contractors or the defense acquisition system. Those studies proposed that bundling and consolidation are generally positive tools to procure best value. This paper tests these propositions by examining relevant U.S. Department of the Navy (DON) contracts for Fiscal Year 2010, when Congress reported record bundling and consolidation in U.S. defense contracting. Specifically, the paper looks to performance of Navy and Marine Corps buying commands in meeting small business goals and other good-government objectives such as competition, performance-based acquisitions, preference for commercial suppliers, and support for the U.S. defense industrial base. The paper recommends improvements in targeted good-government practices as measures to reduce bundling and consolidation.

Cost growth in Department of Defense (DoD) weapon systems continues to be a scrutinized area of concern. One way to minimize unexpected cost growth is to derive better and more realistic cost estimates. In this vein, cost estimators have many analytical tools to ply. Previous research has demonstrated the use of a two-step logistic and multiple regression methodology to aid in this endeavor. We investigate and expand this methodology to cost growth in procurement dollar accounts for the Engineering and Manufacturing Development phase of DoD acquisition. We develop and present two salient statistical models for cost estimators to at least consider if not use in mitigating cost growth for existing and future government acquisition programs.

This article aims to alert readers to the procurement and acquisition activities of police agencies, to the risks that these entail, and to mechanisms for their effective management.

The article explores the ways in which acquisition by police is conducted and regulated. It examines these relationships between police and the private sector from the perspective of their benefits, such as costs and efficiency gains, and the risks they entail, including overdependency, corruption and lack of accountability.

Shopping by the public police is on the increase. Through procurement and outsourcing, police harness resources needed to cope with increasing demands on their services. Increased police activity in the marketplace, driven by changing ideological, economic and pragmatic considerations, represents a fundamental structural shift in policing. The article identifies appropriate institutional and procedural safeguards, and raises questions about the implications of commercial relationships for the future of public policing.

This article makes a contribution by flagging the increased reliance of police on externally provided goods and services, and by suggesting ways in which the procurement process can be managed to ensure both accountability and value for money.