The federal government is questioning its use of four databases designed to monitor contractor performance, throwing into question whether states like California should adopt a similar system.
The revelation comes as the California Department of Technology (CalTech) prepares to hold a forum this week to consider its own program to evaluate and track how well technology companies perform on state contracts. The federal government’s past performance databases have been discussed as a possible model for California.
In a Federal Computer Week article published Thursday, Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., complained the federal system appears old and contains information that is "scanty, and scattered across multiple databases."
McCaskill also expressed concerns that contract officers have been reluctant to enter negative information about vendors, according to the article.
The federal government has planned since 2001 to combine its four databases into one unified system that includes solicitations, awards and performance. However, cost overruns and development problems have pushed the launch date to 2018.
