Outcry over USASpending.gov website redo

The USASpending.gov federal spending website got a recent makeover, and the results have prompted a flurry of complaints from small business federal contractors.

The free public website previously offered easily searchable information on trillions of dollars worth of federal contracts going back a decade or more, along with tools to quickly sum up and download the data.

It also was easy to search and download data for specific contracts and contractors, including by NAICS Code, product service code and keywords.

The newly-launched version by the Treasury Dept. has met with numerous complaints because it has limited those capabilities. The searches by keyword, six-digit NAICS Code and four-digit Product Service Code are no longer available at all. Search and download capabilities have been reduced.

The new version “drastically cut access to what, until last month, was a comprehensive set of data about past federal contracts,” Judy Bradt, chief executive of Summit Insights consulting firm, wrote in the Washington Business Journal. “And that hurts a lot of contractors by reducing competitive intelligence, increasing marketing costs, and decreasing competition. Those hurt most will be small businesses,” she wrote.

Bradt noted that the former USASpending.gov query screen offered more than 30 criteria from which to choose data. The new site has only eight.

Furthermore, she said the new site includes only 22 pieces of information about federal contracts, compared to 200 data fields previously. It also limits the amount of data that can be exported.

Other users of the website have detailed numerous other complaints, including in an article in The Washington Free Beacon (http://goo.gl/XpC05l). Eileen Kent, contracting consultant, also commented on the problems in a column (see page 4).

While contractors still may obtain data from the Federal Procurement Data System that system is considered by most to be much more difficult to use than USASpending.gov.

Treasury Dept. officials said the changes improve transparency and make it easier for the public to obtain basic data. In response to complaints about the redo, download capabilities were expanded in mid-April and keyword search may be added, officials said in a statement. Officials also set up a GitHub site to monitor and respond to feedback on USASpending.gov.

More Information: WBJ article: http://goo.gl/Jy8Kwi
Free Beacon article: http://goo.gl/XpC05l
GitHub site: http://goo.gl/T4oC8u
Treasury Dept. statement: http://goo.gl/igykD9

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