GAO Audit of Contracted Services
The Government Accountability Office (GAO) recently issued a new report of potential interest to the acquisition and sustainment community entitled “GAO-18-330 DOD Contracted Services: Long-Standing Issues Remain about Using Inventory for Management Decisions”.
According to the GAO, “DOD spends billions of dollars on contracted services for tasks such as IT support, but it has struggled for years to effectively manage the range of services DOD buys. To build a full picture of purchases and make strategic decisions about them, it's required to compile an ongoing inventory of these purchases. We found that DOD continues to make limited use of the inventory. We have made 18 recommendations in the past on how to improve or better use the inventory, most of which have been implemented. However, military departments generally have not developed plans to use the inventory for workforce and budget decisions.”
According to the GAO, “DOD spends billions of dollars on contracted services for tasks such as IT support, but it has struggled for years to effectively manage the range of services DOD buys. To build a full picture of purchases and make strategic decisions about them, it's required to compile an ongoing inventory of these purchases. We found that DOD continues to make limited use of the inventory. We have made 18 recommendations in the past on how to improve or better use the inventory, most of which have been implemented. However, military departments generally have not developed plans to use the inventory for workforce and budget decisions.”