Collecting more and better data on federal contract consolidation and bundling would cost taxpayers $1 million over five years, according to a new estimate from the Congressional Budget Office.

      The report forecasted the costs to implement HR 4094, sponsored by Rep. Sam Graves, R-MO, to oversee the government’s practice of combining two or more contracts into a single contract. The resulting contracts tend to be larger with multiple requirements, making them less suitable for small firms.

      To guard against that pattern, federal agencies are supposed to identify and justify consolidated and bundled contracts over $2 million. But auditors have found significant gaps in reporting.

      Under the bill, the Small Business Administration would make a plan to collect more and better data. The CBO said most of the data is in the Federal Procurement Data System, but software upgrades would be needed to retrieve it.

More information: CBO estimate http://www.cbo.gov/publication/45288
GAO report http://www.gao.gov/assets/660/659254.pdf