Bloomberg Government just released its top 200 government contractors list. Analyst Brian Friel, who contributed to the rankings, spoke to The Federal Drive with Tom Temin and Emily Kopp Thursday about which government contractors were doing things right.

Study Introduction:

More than 140,000 companies serve as prime contractors for the U.S. government, providing a broad range of goods and services from every major sector of the nation's economy. These contractors build Coast Guard ships and Air Force jets, secure military information networks, ferry supplies to troops in remote regions of Afghanistan, manage student aid programs, provide pharmaceuticals and uniforms, and supply offices with computers.

The BGOV200 Federal Industry Leaders 2012 ranks the top 200 prime contractors by the value of their government contract awards, or obligations, in fiscal 2011. This publication covers only prime contracts — those in which companies have direct relationships with the government — and not subcontracts.

The information in this publication is drawn from Bloomberg Government's proprietary federal procurement database. Our rankings cover unclassified work in fiscal 2011 valued at $3,000 or greater. We also break out where each company ranks at the government's 24 largest contracting agencies and within each of the 20 largest categories of purchases, including professional services, aerospace and construction.

Spending categories are based on the 103 federal supply group codes that federal agencies use to identify the types of products and services they purchase. Bloomberg Government consolidated similar codes into 40 categories. For example, computer hardware purchases (Supply Group 70) and technology services (Supply Group D) form the BGOV200 Technology category. Category rankings for each company reflect purchases made by all federal agencies that report their contracting data. Rankings are displayed if a company is among the top 300 in the category.

The spending totals for the Defense Department include contracts at the Army, Air Force, Navy and all defense agencies. To provide insight into military spending, rankings are provided for the Defense Department as a whole as well as for each of the three military services and the two defense agencies with the most procurement in fiscal 2011 — the Defense Logistics Agency and the TriCare Management Activity. TriCare is the health care program for military personnel, retirees and their families.

Rankings also are provided for all nondefense Cabinet departments and the four independent agencies that spent the most on procurement: the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, the General Services Administration, the Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Agency for International Development.

Rankings are for contracting agencies, rather than funding agencies. Nearly half the contracts issued by the General Services Administration and more than a quarter of those issued by the Interior Department are funded by other agencies. GSA and Interior provide contracting services to other agencies for a fee.

(Read Bloomberg Government's full study: "BGOV200: Federal Industry Leaders 2012" at BGov.com. BGov.com is a paid site and requires a subscription for access.)