Braxton Taylor
The Trump administration is asking agencies to review their consulting contracts with at least 10 large companies, including some global firms, as part of an effort to cut “non-essential consulting contracts.”
The acting head of the General Services Administration, Stephen Ehikian, asked “agency senior procurement executive[s]” to review their consulting contracts with the 10 companies the administration deemed the highest paid using procurement data—Deloitte, Accenture Federal Services, Booz Allen Hamilton, General Dynamics, Leidos, Guidehouse, Hill Mission Technologies Corp., Science Applications International Corporation, CGI Federal and International Business Machines Corporation—in a memo dated Feb. 26 obtained by Nextgov/FCW.
Those 10 companies “are set to receive over $65 billion in fees in 2025 and future years,” Ehikian wrote.
“This needs to, and must, change,” he added in bold.
GSA had already asked agencies to review all contracts with the firms in question, as well as affiliates, and terminate all except those deemed mission critical and as giving “substantive, imperative technical support,” Ehikian wrote.
“Not enough action has been taken,” he continued. “We request each agency review these consulting contracts again given the size and scope.”
He gave agency procurement executives until March 7 to give a list of contracts with the firms in question that their agencies are keeping and those they’re terminating, along with a “signed statement from a senior official” verifying the criticality of any the agency is maintaining.
All 10 companies listed in the memo hold prime positions on OASIS, a government-wide contract vehicle run by GSA that other federal agencies use to acquire professional services that are not tech-centric in nature.
OASIS opened for business in 2014 and agencies have since collectively obligated approximately $46.7 billion in spending against the vehicle, according to data from GovExec’s market intelligence division GovTribe.
Six of OASIS’ 10 largest spending recipients to-date are cited in the memo: Booz Allen, SAIC, Leidos, General Dynamics IT, Hill Mission Technologies Corp. and Deloitte.
Many of the listed companies are also included on Alliant 2 and CIO-SP3 contracts, and the GSA schedule.
It’s unclear if all procurement employees at all agencies received the notice or only those at larger federal agencies. A GSA spokesperson didn’t clarify what agencies received the memo, referring Nextgov/FCW to specific agencies for information about specific agency contracts, but did say in a statement that “GSA has taken immediate action to fully implement all current executive orders and is committed to taking action to implement any new executive orders.”
The notice comes alongside a new executive order directing agencies to build centralized tech to record all payments issued through contracts and grants, along with justification for those payments. Agency leaders were also told to review all grants and contracts within 30 days and terminate or modify them to reduce spending under that executive order.
Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency has been touting contract cancellations across agencies already, although the DOGE’s savings calculations are riddled with errors, the New York Times reported. Four contracts on the DOGE’s “Wall of Receipts,” for example, were found to have zero savings, as Washington Technology reported Tuesday.
“For decades, IBM has been advocating the use of technology to help U.S. federal agencies streamline operations, increase efficiency and deliver better return on taxpayer dollars,” an IBM spokesperson told Nextgov/FCW in a statement. “Today, IBM supports the modernization and delivery of mission critical federal services and systems, from processing veteran health claims more quickly, to enabling a more efficient digital taxpayer experience. We are proud of this and our additional work across the U.S. government and are committed to helping agencies become more efficient and deliver better results for the American public.”
GDIT, CGI and Leidos declined to comment, and Nextgov/FCW has reached out to other companies named on the memo.
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