The total value of unclassified information technology contracts awarded by the federal government during its 2019 fiscal year increased by 6 percent to $69B and nearly $40B of the obligated funds came from the Department of Defense, Bloomberg Government reported Wednesday.
DoD obligated $35.9B on IT products and services in FY2019, a 5.3 percent increase over the prior year period, while civilian agencies’ spent $33.2B, up 7 percent from the previous year.
The Pentagon increased the amount of procurements via tech-focused other transaction agreements by 80 percent to $7.3B, compared with the $4.1B the department spent through OTAs in FY 2018, the report noted.
The departments of Health and Human Services, Homeland Security and Veterans Affairs were the top IT spenders in the civilian sector at $15.1B.
According to the report, artificial intelligence and cloud computing programs helped spur double-digit spending growth in both the defense and civilian sectors.
BGOV analysts found that governmentwide IT spending rose 5.8 percent annually over the past five years.
