Federal agency
Government Accountability Office (GAO)
$117.4 Million committed in FY2025
- Mission
- Our Mission is to support the Congress in meeting its constitutional responsibilities and to help improve the performance and ensure the accountability of the federal government for the benefit of the American people. We provide Congress with timely information that is objective, fact-based, nonpartisan, nonideological, fair, and balanced.
- Sub-agencies
- 1 bureaus and offices
- Website
- https://www.gao.gov/ ↗
- Agency code
- 005
How the money flows
Committed dollars by how the money leaves GAO.
Contracts
$117.4M
100%
Where the money goes
Top destinations of GAO's committed dollars. Direct payments to individuals (Medicare, Social Security, …) are aggregated by the government, so they show as the federal program rather than a named recipient.
What they buy
Top products and services GAO buys under contract, by dollars committed.
It and Telecom - It Management Support Services (Labor)
$27.6M
It and Telecom - Business Application/Application Development Support Services (Labor)
$26.6M
Maintenance of Other Administrative Facilities and Service Buildings
$22.8M
It and Telecom - Network Support Services (Labor)
$9.3M
Support- Professional: Physical Security and Badging
$4.9M
Storage Tanks
$4.3M
It and Telecom - Business Application/Application Development Software as a Service
$3.5M
Education/Training- General
$3.1M
Support- Professional: Other
$2.8M
Support- Professional: Market Research/Public Opinion
$2.8M
Awards
The largest individual awards issued by GAO.
Competition
How competitively GAO's contract dollars were awarded. 'Not available' is legitimate sole-source (a single source — utilities, proprietary parts); 'not competed' is the flag worth a second look.
Competed
$111.6M
95%
Not competed
$4.5M
4%
Not available for competition
$1.3M
Contract set-asides
Contract dollars GAO reserved before bidding for a specific kind of firm — small business, 8(a), service-disabled-veteran, women-owned, HUBZone — versus full and open competition.
Small business
$517,554
<1%
8(a)
$1.7M
1%
Full and open
$115.2M
98%
Where it lands
Top states by place of performance — where GAO's work is done or its money lands, by dollars committed.
Virginia
$67.7M
District of Columbia
$18.5M
Colorado
$9.9M
By fiscal year
Committed dollars grew 85% across FY2018–FY2025. GAO's committed dollars per fiscal year, FY2018–FY2026.
* FY2026 is year-to-date — the fiscal year is still in progress, so its total is still filling in. The striped band and dashed line mark that provisional stretch.
How to read these numbers
- Committed, not paid
Every figure is money this agency committed — legally promised by signing a contract or awarding a grant — counted in the year each action happened, not cash out the door.
- From FY2018 on
Agency pages start at fiscal year 2018, the first year of complete federal-assistance reporting. Earlier years aren't shown rather than shown wrong.
- Awards, counted once
An award count is the number of distinct awards with at least one action that year — each counted once, however many times it was amended.
- Benefits show as programs
Medicare, Social Security, and other direct payments to individuals are aggregated by the government, so under Where the money goes they appear as the program, not a named recipient.
- The colored bars
Every bar on this page splits by how the money moves:
Direct payments
