Air Force and Interior Can Benefit from Additional Guidance When Deciding Whether to Lease or Purchase Equipment

Abstract

Federal agencies spend more than $200 billion per year, on average, to lease or purchase equipment, with purchases accounting for nearly all of this spending.1 With agencies facing new fiscal austerity challenges, it is increasingly important that every dollar is spent cost effectively. The Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) provides that when agencies are seeking to obtain equipment, they should consider whether it is more economical to lease equipment rather than purchase it as a component of acquisition planning. This is known as a lease versus purchase analysis. You requested that we examine how this process is working. As agreed with your staff, we focused on one defense and one civilian agency, the Department of the Air Force (Air Force) and the Department of the Interior (Interior). We determined (1) the extent to which these agencies perform lease versus purchase analyses for equipment, and (2) the role the General Services Administration (GSA) plays in assisting agencies with making lease versus purchase decisions

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Feb 07, 2012
Accession Number
ADA556884

Entities

People

  • J. A. Walker
  • Jessica Drucker
  • John Neumann
  • Julia Kennon
  • Laura Greifner
  • Marie Ahearn
  • William T. Woods

Organizations

  • United States Government Accountability Office

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Human Systems

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Acquisition
  • Air Force
  • Contracts
  • Data Processing Equipment
  • Department Of Defense
  • Economic Analysis
  • Electronic Mail
  • Governments
  • Guidance
  • National Governments
  • Processing Equipment
  • Procurement
  • Standards
  • Test And Evaluation
  • Training
  • United States
  • United States Government

Readers

  • Economics
  • Government Contracting/Procurement.