Largest Private Government Contractors
Listen to Laura Criste, Federal Market Analyst at Bloomberg Government, describe what has changed over the past decade – and the top five government entrepreneurs in fiscal 2020. Booz Allen Hamilton is a consulting firm, and although it has clients in the private sector, most of its revenue comes from government contracts. In collaboration with several U.S. intelligence agencies, including the National Security Agency and the Department of Homeland Security, and branches of the U.S. military, much of the company`s activities are confidential. It`s probably no coincidence that 70% of the company`s employees have a security clearance. In general, Booz Allen Hamilton provides intelligence and data analysis, engineering and cybersecurity services to government clients. This year`s BGOV200 report focuses on companies and major market trends, looking at the contract dynamics of the past year and the performance of successful entrepreneurs. The share of the top 200 entrepreneurs in the state`s total commitments was 65%, about as much as in fiscal 2019. Neeser Construction, another state-based company, is constructing two buildings for the Army Corps of Engineers at the Fort Greely Missile Defense Complex. Although Doyon Utilities won only the fifth-largest sum of federal contract funds, the company`s 50-year contract to provide utilities such as heating, water and electricity for three state military bases was the largest ever awarded by the Department of Defense. According to the Congressional Budget Office, the U.S.
government spent $4 trillion in 2017. While most of the budget goes to programs like Social Security and Medicaid, hundreds of billions of federal dollars also end up in the coffers of a handful of private sector companies. Outside of arms and aerospace companies, Arizona is home to the TriWest Healthcare Alliance, a company that works with the Department of Veterans Affairs to provide medical care to veterans across the country, despite an investigation that found it overwhelmed the federal government with tens of millions of dollars. Maine has one of the longest coastlines in the United States (longer than California) and its major contractors reflect this close relationship with the ocean. Bath Iron Works is one of two shipyards that build Arleigh Burke-class destroyers that fire missiles for the U.S. Navy. It has recently been tasked with continuing to provide services to these ships, but due to its smaller size and higher cost per ship than its competitor, it has only received a contract for four of the 10 new destroyers. Cianbro, another large Maine-based construction company, builds the ports where ships dock. They were recently tasked with modernizing docks in Maine and a port in New York. Wyoming is modernizing both the state and the country if the work of its top contractors is any indication.
The Army Corp of Engineers has selected Fluor Federal Solutions to build a new nuclear weapons storage and maintenance facility in Laramie, Wyoming. Malcolm International has been awarded a three-year contract to repair the Bull Lake Dam in central Wyoming and Oftedal Construction is building and repairing roads and highways in the western United States Compass PTS is a FEMA flood risk mapping partner and United Excel Corporation is building medical facilities in Alaska. Hawaii and the U.S. territories. These “entrepreneurs” are non-governmental workers and private companies that receive contracts from government agencies to provide products or services. They save money in government from the outset by reducing the demand for federal labour and resources. Some of the biggest clients are the Ministry of Defence, the Ministry of Energy and the Ministry of Health and Social Services. Companies mandated by these agencies offer contracts by submitting proposals and prices to the agency.
Once these contracts, sometimes millions or billions of dollars, are awarded, companies develop new cutting-edge technologies for the military, distribute drugs to veterans, track down people who have not paid their student loans, and much more. Some contracts are specifically aimed at small businesses, but the biggest players are usually defense contractors who develop weapons, vehicles, and technologies for the military. Raytheon, Boeing and Lockheed Martin all bring in billions of orders and often only compete for large projects. In 2017, Lockheed Martin raised $50.7 billion in federal contracts, which is more than NASA`s annual budget, as reported by 24/7 Wall St. based on figures from the federal government`s procurement data system. The gig economy makes everyone an entrepreneur, at least according to the Labor Department. Long before Uber or Lyft turned anyone and everyone into a taxi driver or delivery driver, the federal government was spending billions of dollars on businesses across the country. Instead of hiring more civilians in Washington D.C and the surrounding area, the Trump administration`s increased budget for the military and Pentagon has led to a veritable gold rush of federal contracts.
Lockheed Martin is one of the most popular companies in the public procurement industry. The company is a defense, information and national security technology company based in North Bethesda, Maryland, near Washington, D.C., that designs and manufactures satellites, spacecraft, and intelligence systems that go far beyond the consumption of non-state consumers. The Research Triangle is a region of 12 Counties in North Carolina anchored between Duke, North Carolina and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. It is also home to Research Triangle Park, which is home to a number of technology companies and other research companies such as the non-profit Research Triangle Institute. RTI works with government and other agencies to provide data and research on topics ranging from Juuls to food security. Other large contractors offer construction and military showroom services, among others. Other federal contractors in the state also work to support government agencies — administrative support. Central Research Inc. provides postal services, processes applications for public documents, and primarily collects student loans in arrears. 24/7 Wall St. reviewed contract data from the Federal Procurement Data System to identify companies that are getting the most out of the federal government.
The government paid at least $2.3 billion each to 30 businesses in fiscal 2017. Four companies on the list each received more than $14 billion in federal contracts, more than the total budget of the Environmental Protection Agency or the Department of the Interior. All that money is spent on companies across America, but these huge numbers can make it hard to see who benefits the most from these contracts. .