RESTON, Va., 22 May 2008.Input has opened its electronic library containing thousands of federal and state and local contract documents to the public.
"We have more than 3,000 government contracts and task orders acquired under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) available now with more added every day," said Ashlea Higgs, senior manager, Input Network. "Government FOIA offices are overloaded and requests often take several months to complete. By making our library available, we hope to offload some of the volume of requests to FOIA offices and provide immediate access to these documents to citizens and organizations that have a need."
By providing access to government contracts, Input expects to help government agencies and contractors make better decisions as it relates to government planning and acquisition.
"Government contractors don't have the luxury of waiting for the government to release an RFP to decide if they should bid," says Higgs. "Having access to an existing contract prior to release of an RFP can help a company decide much earlier whether it has the skills and resources to pursue an upcoming contract."
Agencies may leverage the contracts to learn how other government agencies have approached certain types of contracts in the past. "We see lots of different agencies procuring similar services," says Higgs. "When agencies produce an RFP or statement of work for an upcoming requirement, they can learn a lot and save time by looking at contracts that other agencies have let for similar requirements."
Input's FOIA Library is available to everyone by visiting http://www.input.com/corp/library/government.cfm.
