OMB Memo on Consolidating Federal Procurement Activities

In March, President Trump issued Executive Order 14240, “Eliminating Waste and Saving Taxpayer Dollars by Consolidating Procurement,” to ensure that common goods and services are acquired as efficiently and effectively as possible. The Office of Management and Budget has now released a memo to support implementation of that order. The memo directs agencies to implement two work streams: (1) increased agency use of centralized contracts managed by GSA, especially for widely available commercial products and basic services, and (2) centralization in GSA of procurement functions currently decentralized across departments to promote greater economy and efficiency. Using the criteria in Figure 1 of the memo, it is likely that further development contracts will likely remain with State as they are typically complex, difficult to standardize, often mission-critical, and require close oversight.