Federal contract spending reached $681B in fiscal year 2020 driven by budget increases for agencies within the Department of Defense and efforts to address the COVID-19 pandemic, Bloomberg Government reported Tuesday.
The figure reflects a 43 percent rise from contract obligations worth $478B recorded in FY 2016.
BGOV said pandemic-related spending was approximately $43B in FY 2020 and spending on DOD contracts has climbed by 45 percent since FY 2016.
Federal agencies spent $20.8B on governmentwide acquisition contracts for information technology services and $18B on other transaction authority agreements in FY 2020. BGOV said agencies turned to OTAs as they work to accelerate the development of vaccines and medical equipment during the health crisis.
Federal contract dollars that went to small businesses in FY 2020 reached $144B, while best-in-class contracts accounted for $48B of the total contract spending in the previous fiscal year.
