A Review of Alternative Methods to Inventory Contracted Services in the Department of Defense
Abstract
Since the late 1940s, U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) purchases of services have increased consistently, from less than 30 percent to more than 60 percent of the department's overall budget. This increase reflects both the growth of services in the overall economy and the initiatives of political administrations over time to procure services from the private sector on behalf of DoD to the greatest extent possible. Nevertheless, such growth has led to concerns regarding contracting of inherently governmental functions, contract oversight, contractor accountability, and contract waste, fraud, and abuse. Concerns about the growth in DoD's purchases of services have led Congress to institute several policies aimed at strengthening oversight of such purchases. These policies have included 2001 legislation requiring DoD to collect and track data on the procurement of services, 2002 and 2008 congressional language expressing an interest in spend analyses that might be used to increase buying leverage and improve contractor performance, and a 2008 requirement in Title 10, Section 2330a, of the U.S. Code establishing the DoD Inventory of Contracted Services (ICS) to collect information on activities performed under DoD service contracts. Concern regarding both the methods for collecting data in the ICS and the utility of these data led Congress to request that the Secretary of Defense review the methods used to create the ICS, as well as the products resulting from these efforts.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jan 01, 2017
- Accession Number
- AD1085327
Entities
People
- Anita Szafran
- Clifford Grammich
- Evan D. Peet
- Frank A. Camm
- Judith D. Mele
- Molly Dunigan
- Nancy Y. Moore
- Samantha Cherney
Organizations
- RAND Corporation