Contract Management: DOD Begins New Effort to Improve Reporting of Contract Service Costs
Abstract
Although the Department of Defense (DOD) is increasing its reliance on contractor support, long-standing concerns exist regarding the accuracy and reliability of its accounting for the costs of contract services, particularly advisory and assistance services Congress has expressed its concern that without accurate and reliable data in this area, appropriate oversight may be hampered. In May 1998, we reported that the Army had erroneously included costs for some advisory and assistance services in the miscellaneous service budget category and that the miscellaneous category comprised a large portion of total contract services-$47 billion out of $96 billion in fiscal year 1996. In fiscal year 1998, reported contract service costs totaled about $90 billion. In 1998, Congress imposed a statutory limit on the percentage of total contract service costs that may be reported in the miscellaneous category This limit was set at 30 percent of total contract service costs in fiscal year 2000 and at 15 percent in 2001 and thereafter. Additionally, Congress required (1) DOD to review and report annually on its proposed budget submission to ensure that contract services meeting the definition of advisory and assistance services are properly classified and (2) that we review DoD's report. Our objective for the report was to determine the actions taken by DOD to improve the accuracy of its reporting of costs for contract services.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Oct 01, 1999
- Accession Number
- ADA369942
Entities
Organizations
- United States Government Accountability Office