More Procurement Data Is Available in New System A new storehouse of federal procurement data is now available at www.fpdsng.com. The Federal Procurement Data System-Next Generation is supposed to improve the accuracy of procurement information and make available much more information about contracts. It went online Jan. 1. GSA officials described it as “a self-service system” that will allow users to see standard reports on government procurement and to create their own custom reports. Contrary to GSA’s original plan, the data will be available at no charge; only resellers who want a continuous stream of data will be required to pay a one-time $2,500 fee. The site contains 13 million contract records stretching back to 1979. Users can search for details about specific contracts – more than 150 data elements on each one – but cannot see the entire contract. Officials of the contractor that operates the system, Global Computer Enterprises Inc., acknowledge it is a work in progress. New reports may be added to the 63 standard reports currently available, said GCE’s program manager, Nancy Gunsauls, at a Dec. 16 training session in Washington. She also cautioned that the site may be slow because of the volume of records to be searched. The database is designed so that agency contracting officers can submit data on each contract automatically as soon as it is awarded, but Gunsauls said most agencies do not yet have the contract-writing software to do that. The Defense Department’s system is already connected to FPDS-NG. The automated systems will replace the manual data entry that was a source of inaccuracies in the old FPDS. Global Computer Enterprises failed to reach one of its goals: to make fiscal 2004 small-business contracting information available by Jan. 1. The 2004 data currently available is far from complete. A notice on the website said the data is still being reviewed by agencies.