Summary: The government uses many specifications and standards to procure the commercial products it uses. Several studies have raised questions about the usefulness of these specifications. A review was conducted which concentrated on General Services Administration (GSA) and Department of Defense (DOD) specifications for commercial products to identify areas where improvements could be made in the government's specification program.
The decision to use or not use a government specification to procure commercial products is not simple, and factors relating to procurement and specifications types complicate the matter. Formal advertising, as the preferred government procurement method, is most easily accomplished by using precise specifications. These specifications can be costly to develop and maintain. Brand-name-or-equal buying would eliminate the need for detailed specifications and allow procurement of readily accessible off-the-shelf products. But this buying would limit competition and have disadvantages for determining which products best meet government needs. Current regulations do not provide cost-versus-benefit guidance for the development or maintenance of specifications. Several instances were identified in which the cost to develop or revise a specification exceeded the cost of the material to be procured. Specifications management was inefficient; information was not gathered on the cost or expected benefits of developing specifications; duplication existed in several commercial-vehicle specifications; and over 50 percent of the active specifications were over 5 years old.
