Agencies can say no to GAO recs

By law, agencies do not have to follow GAO\'s recommendations — but most do, says William Welch, chair of the Government Contracts Practice Group at General C...

The Veterans Affairs Department just says no to the Government Accountability Office’s recommendations. The GAO says VA violated a 2006 law when it failed to set aside two contract solicitations for service-disabled, veteran-owned small businesses.

By law, agencies do not have to follow GAO’s recommendations — but most do.

“The recommendation is followed in 99 percent of the time,” said William Welch, chair of the Government Contracts Practice Group at General Counsel, in an interview with In Depth with Francis Rose.

“Congress can’t tell the executive [agencies] what to do without passing a law signed by President,” he said.

Despite the fact recommendations don’t carry the weight of a mandate, generally agencies abide up “an written policy” that they should follow the recommendation, Welch said. If an agency does not follow a GAO rec, that agency must notify GAO and the Congress, he said.

Copyright © 2024 Federal News Network. All rights reserved. This website is not intended for users located within the European Economic Area.

    Joint Chiefs Chairman

    Though the Defense Department managed to go unscathed through the Crowdstrike outage, it remains on the alert

    Read more
    USPS, EV, USPS electric vehicles

    The road to electrifying America’s personal vehicles starts with the USPS EV fleet

    Read more
    Congress, budget, budget cut, spending cuts, Capitol, Congress, federal budget

    Congress tackles spending, policy and candidate protections on the road to the August recess

    Read more