Federally tracked military contract data is frequently inaccurate and incomplete

Evidence

The Federal Procurement Data System that’s supposed to track government contracts “often contains inaccurate data,” according to the Government Accountability Office (“Federal Contracting: Observations on the Government’s Contracting Data Systems,” report, GAO-09-1032T, Washington, DC, September 29, 2009). For example, my research showed hundreds of thousands of contracts with no “place of performance” listed. On the other hand, some of the contacts included in the list are unrelated to the provision of goods and services for overseas bases; however, the simultaneous omission of base-related contracts means this methodology provides a useful portrait of where contracts and taxpayer dollars are going overseas. Still, the totals listed should be treated as rough estimates. — David Vine, Base Nation_ How U.S. Military Bases…, 1551

Categorization

Category: Factual Claims

• QUESTION: Worth chasing: how unreliable is the Federal Procurement Data System for other base-related financial figures cited in this book and elsewhere?

Related

• Federal contracting databases lack reliable place-of-performance data (similarity 0.92)
• The Pentagon’s top overseas contracting recipient is an unnamed catchall category worth $47 billion. (similarity 0.82)
• The Pentagon spent roughly $385 billion on overseas contractor work from 2001 to 2013 (similarity 0.82)
• Contract data by place of performance can misattribute war support work to neutral countries (similarity 0.82)
• The Pentagon disbursed roughly $385 billion to overseas contractors from 2001 to 2013. (similarity 0.82)
• The Pentagon deliberately obscures who receives billions in overseas contracts (similarity 0.80)
• Overseas base contracts range from $43 to $301 million apiece. (similarity 0.80)

Broader Connections

• Federal procurement data on overseas contracts is unreliable and totals are only rough estimates #corroborates (0.85)
• Official figures on returned base land are internally inconsistent #expands (0.60)