Dec 2024 - Understanding Government Tools
Not all government databases and platforms are perfectly accurate. Data anomalies can occur for various reasons. When conducting analysis, it’s essential to understand what each site or database offers, where its information originates, how often it’s updated, and what kind of data you can access.
By understanding these factors, you can determine how the data is collected and reported, and which site(s) or database(s) best fit your analytical needs. For example, if you want to examine the spending history of a specific defense program, you might consult both the General Services Administration’s (GSA) Federal Procurement Data System (FPDS.gov) and the Department of Treasury’s USAspending.gov. These platforms provide insights into various factors, such as budget allocations and subcontracting dollars. It’s common for Capture Managers to use both platforms and reconcile the differences between them when analyzing data.
Each platform provides transparency about its data collection and reporting processes in their Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) sections:
FPDS.gov states: “USAspending.gov is not currently pulling procurement data from FPDS in real time. USAspending.gov is updated with FPDS data on nightly basis.”
USAspending.gov notes: “While USAspending.gov does receive contract award data from the Department of Defense (DOD) and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), there is a 90-day delay in the submission of these data to the FPDS source system.”
Reconciling these statements reveals the following process:
The Department of Defense (DoD) submits its procurement data to GSA every 90 days.
Once received, this data is published on FPDS.gov.
FPDS.gov then shares its updated data with USAspending.gov through nightly uploads.
As a result, the earliest possible availability of accurate DoD data is approximately 90 days on FPDS.gov and 91 days on USAspending.gov.
