Government Accountability Office Contract Opportunities

What GAO buys

GAO pain points

What GAO is actively trying to fix — sourced from agency strategic plans, IG reports, and FY26 budget justifications. Map your capabilities to these and you're writing toward an evaluator's actual problem.

• 1

  GAO has identified that federal agencies struggle with implementing consistent cybersecurity incident response plans, with over 30% of agencies failing to meet NIST framework standards, creating a need for tailored incident response training and tools.

• 2

  Under GAO’s Strategic Human Capital Management high-risk area, federal agencies face a 20% vacancy rate in critical IT roles, requiring contractors to provide specialized recruitment and retention strategies for tech talent.

• 3

  GAO reports highlight $1.2 trillion in duplicative IT investments across federal agencies, presenting an opportunity for contractors to offer data analytics solutions to identify and eliminate redundant systems.

• 4

  GAO’s climate change risk exposure findings note that federal infrastructure lacks resilience planning, with $100B in annual disaster costs, necessitating contractor support for climate adaptation assessments and mitigation strategies.

• 5

  GAO estimates $175B in annual improper payments across federal programs, creating a demand for AI-driven fraud detection and payment verification systems that contractors can develop.

• 6

  Inspector General reports cite delays in border security technology deployment, with $500M in CBP projects behind schedule, opening opportunities for contractors to provide project management and tech integration services.

FY26 funding priorities

Where the money is moving inside GAO in the current and upcoming fiscal years.

• GAO allocating $5M in FY2025 for cybersecurity audit support contracts to assess federal agency compliance with NIST frameworks
• GAO committing $3.2M for IT acquisition oversight consulting services to evaluate major system modernization failures, with solicitations in Q1 FY2025
• GAO budgeting $4.8M for strategic human capital management studies, seeking contractors for workforce analytics and retention strategy development in FY2025-2026
• GAO investing $2.5M in climate risk assessment contracts to support audits of federal infrastructure resilience programs, with task orders expected in FY2025
• GAO dedicating $3M for improper payment analysis support, issuing RFPs for data analytics firms to identify fraud in federal programs during FY2025