About This Special Issue

Agencies spent $245 billion on large prime contracts in fiscal 2002, more than 12 percent more than the 2001 figure of $218 billion. Federal procurement spending is up by nearly a third since 1999.

In part, the increase is the result of agencies simply reporting more accurately on their major contracts. But clearly a spending spree is under way. Take just one agency that didn't exist at the beginning of fiscal 2002: The Transportation Security Administration. By the end of the year, TSA was managing $8.5 billion worth of contracts.

In many ways, the increased spending has only just begun. For example, the data in this year's issue do not reflect spending on operations in Iraq or fiscal 2003 homeland security efforts. And the Defense Department remains committed to a wide range of expensive new weapons systems. With ongoing operations putting a strain on military forces and their equipment, proposals to shelve one or more major programs have fallen by the wayside. And with such next-generation systems as unmanned aerial vehicles and smart bombs proving their worth on the battlefield, the administration has proposed to push military R&D spending to its highest level in history next year.

Of course, at Defense and elsewhere, savvy agencies have learned that it's not just how much you spend, but how you spend it. The winners of the Business Solutions in the Public Interest Awards profiled in this issue provide some of the best examples of effective use of the federal government's purchasing power. The awards are co-sponsored by Government Executive, the Council for Excellence in Government and the Office of Federal Procurement Policy.

The rankings of top contractors and top-spending agencies in the issue are compiled for Government Executive by Eagle Eye Publishers Inc. of Fairfax, Va., from Federal Procurement Data Center data covering fiscal 2002. The center, part of the General Services Administration, gets its information from reports on contracting filed by agencies.

Most of the vendors are private, for-profit U.S. companies. Some of the top contractors are universities or other nonprofit institutions, and others are foreign-owned firms. The data cover only prime contracts worth more than $25,000.

Companies ranked in this issue are parent companies; outlays to subsidiaries are "rolled up" to the parent. For joint ventures, we have assigned each partner an equal portion of payments made under the contract in 2002. Mergers and acquisitions are not reflected in the listings unless they became final before fiscal 2002 ended.

FOR MORE INFORMATION: Eagle Eye Publishers can be reached at (703) 359-8980, on the Web at http://eagleeyeinc.com or via e-mail at info@eagleeyeinc.com. GSA's Federal Procurement Data Center is at (202) 401-1529. To obtain additional copies of this issue, call (800) 207-8001.