Federal fiscal year-end (FFYE) is the busiest season for government IT spending and with ongoing squabbles about budgets and fiscal accountability, the pressure is on to spend prudently and procure efficiently.

Federal fiscal year-end is the busiest season for government IT spending. With only a few weeks left to spend the $3.8 trillion apportioned in Uncle Sam’s 2016 budget, the pressure is on to spend prudently and procure efficiently.

But with growing media and public concern that year-end spending is wasteful, how can your agency make smart IT investments of tax payer dollars come September 30?

With continued unpredictability about the annual federal appropriations process, the 2016 federal fiscal year-end busy season is likely to be as crazy as usual for federal procurement teams.

Are you concerned that your agency’s federal year-end spending spree can lead to the wrong buying decisions? Federal CIO, Tony Scott, is.

“That’s just a really bad way to run IT,” said Scott at the Digital Government Institute’s 930Gov Conference in Washington, D.C. in late August.

With a background in the commercial sector (VMware, Microsoft and Disney), Scott is just getting used to the busy federal buying season that culminates in September, and he’s not liking it.

September is the heaviest buying season for federal agencies. This “use it or lose it” spending spree is decades old and a regular fixture on the calendars of procurement officials.

How to Make the Right IT Buying Decisions this Federal Year-End

Federal fiscal year-end. Busy, busy, busy! Given the plethora of companies competing for their share of fiscal year-end dollars, especially in the crowded IT market place, federal fiscal year-end is always a crazy time for procurement officials. The pressure is on to make the right buying decisions while moving the procurement process along as quickly as possible.

Federal fiscal year-end is right around the corner, but is it really the busy buying season that we’ve come to expect?

As any Fed or politico knows, September is traditionally the month that keeps purchasing officers on their toes and budget hawks in attack mode. As budgets expire, agencies are often perceived as rushing to spend excess funds in order to avert any impact on future budget appropriations.

If you were ever in any doubt, new research proves that this “use it or lose it” tendency among federal agencies is a very real thing.