Defense Acquisitions: Status of DOD's Implementation of Independent Management Reviews for Services Acquisitions

Abstract

The Department of Defense (DOD) is the federal government's largest purchaser of contractor-provided services, obligating more than $207 billion on services contracts in fiscal year 2009. DoD contract management has been on GAO's high-risk list since 1992, in part because of continued weaknesses in DoD's management and oversight of contracts for services. The National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2008 directed DoD to issue guidance providing for independent management reviews for services acquisitions. The Act required that the guidance provide a means to evaluate specific contracting issues and to address other issues, including identifying procedures for tracking recommendations and disseminating lessons learned. The Act also directed GAO to report on DoD's implementation of its guidance. GAO did the following: (1) assessed the extent to which DoD's guidance addressed the Act's requirements and how the guidance was implemented, and (2) determined the status of actions taken by the military departments pursuant to DoD's guidance. GAO compared DoD's guidance with the Act's requirements; obtained data on the number of reviews conducted as of September 2009; and analyzed memoranda of 29 acquisitions valued at over $1 billion. In its written comments, DoD noted it planned to refine its processes to better share the lessons learned and best practices identified during peer reviews.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Jan 01, 2010
Accession Number
ADA514440

Entities

People

  • Alyssa Weir
  • Christopher Mulkins
  • E. B. Booth
  • John P. Hutton
  • Morgan D. Ramaker
  • Thomas Twambly
  • Timothy Dinapoli

Organizations

  • United States Government Accountability Office

Tags

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Acquisition
  • Air Force
  • Best Practices
  • Congress
  • Contractors
  • Contracts
  • Department Of Defense
  • Governments
  • House Of Representatives
  • Law
  • Lessons Learned
  • Military Acquisition
  • National Security
  • Procurement
  • United States
  • United States Government
  • Websites

Readers

  • Government Contracting/Procurement.
  • Organizational Process Management (OPM).