GSA revamps federal procurement database

The General Services Administration is overhauling a system that will track the federal government's procurement contracts.

GSA announced on Friday that it awarded a seven-year, $24 million contract to Maryland-based Global Computer Enterprises for the development and maintenance of the Federal Procurement Data System-Next Generation. Initially launched in 1979, the system is used to collect information on procurement contracts from federal agencies.

The overhaul of the system "is a critical e-government initiative because the award data that it collects helps Congress and the public understand how the government spends taxpayer funds," said David Drabkin, GSA's deputy associate administrator for acquisition policy.

The company will add new features to the system, enable public access to "real time" online reports from the system, add new types of data, and reduce the cost of collecting and managing the data. The contract will be the first major upgrade since the system's inception.