Defense Contracting Integrity. Opportunities Exist to Improve DOD's Oversight of Contractor Ethics Programs

Abstract

Until recently, ethics programs and practices of defense contractors were self-policed. Given the significant sums spent to acquire goods and services, the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) was amended twice starting in December 2007 to first mandate and later amplify contractor ethics program rules. Before FAR changes were finalized in December 2008, Congress required GAO to report in 2009 on the ethics programs of major defense contractors. This report (1) describes the extent that contractors had ethics programs before the finalization of the FAR rules that included practices consistent with standards now required by the FAR and (2) assesses the impact the new FAR rules have on Department of Defense (DOD) oversight of contractor ethics programs. To do this work, in September 2008 GAO surveyed all 57 contractors?those receiving more than $500 million in 2006 DOD contract awards?and interviewed DOD contractor oversight agency officials on the impact of the new FAR rules on oversight.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Sep 01, 2009
Accession Number
ADA507053

Entities

Organizations

  • United States Government Accountability Office

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Biomedical
  • Human Systems
  • Weapons Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Air Force
  • Congress
  • Contract Administration
  • Contractors
  • Contracts
  • Department Of Defense
  • Electronic Mail
  • Employment
  • Government Procurement
  • Governments
  • Law
  • Military Organizations
  • National Security
  • Organizational Structure
  • Personnel Management
  • United States
  • United States Government

Readers

  • Emergency Management and Homeland Security.
  • Government Contracting/Procurement.