PSC: Most agency business forecasts fall short
By
Nick Wakeman
The Professional Services Council has scored the business forecasts of nearly 50 agencies and found that half are in need of improvement.
The Professional Services Council has analyzed the business forecasts released by nearly 50 agencies and found that only 11 of them could be rated as good.
Agencies are supposed to publicly release business plans or forecasts, on what and how they will spend their budgets. Industry uses this information to help with planning and investments.
In its analysis, PSC looked at 15 attributes that the association representing government contractors says makes for a valuable business forecast. This includes how frequently the forecast is updated. Agencies were score lower if they only updated information once a year, for example.
Other attributes included whether the information could be sorted electronically. The level of details was examined. The NAICS codes the agency plan to use was included. The anticipate dates of solicitations should be a part of a good business forecast.
PSC singled out Education, the U.S. Agency for International Development, Justice Department, Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command and the Interior Department as being among those doing a “Good” job with their forecasts.
In the “Fair” category, which means they need to do some work were departments such as State, Energy, Labor, and Housing and Urban Development. Also scoring as "fair" was NASA.
But in the “Needs Improvement” category were 24 agencies -- exactly half of the 48 agencies PSC evaluated. These include several Army organizations and parts of the departments of Agriculture, Veterans Affairs, Health and Human Services, and Transportation.
PSC sent its findings to the Office of Federal Procurement Policy and told Administrator Michael Wooten and argued that improvements need to be made.
It’ll obviously help industry plan but it‘ll also help industry deliver better solutions.
“A forecast, if prepared properly, can provide interested parties with excellent and actionable advance information that will enable them to determine potential future subject matter expert staffing requirements as well as equipment and related project needs and costs,” PSC Executive Vice President and Counsel Alan Chvotkin wrote to OFPP.
PSC plans to produce and publish its scorecard of agency business forecasts each year.