The Obama administration is ahead of schedule on a target it set last year for cutting back on consulting contracts.
Federal awards for consulting, or “management support services,” totaled $13.1 billion in the first half of fiscal 2012, a 28 percent decline from the same period in fiscal 2010, according to procurement data. The administration last year set a goal of reducing such spending by 15 percent in the year ending Sept. 30, compared with 2010 levels.
Federal contracts in 12 targeted consulting areas totaled $43 billion in fiscal 2010, with companies such as Lockheed Martin, Deloitte and Booz Allen Hamilton Holding among the biggest recipients of awards.
“Sometimes agencies are spending money on consultants to write reports that really don’t go anywhere — they sit on the shelf,” Jeff Zients, then-deputy director of the Office of Management and Budget, said when he announced the goal. “Some of these contracts are unnecessary and can be reduced.”
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