GAO provides recommendations to specific agencies as a result of revised task and delivery order regulations. These recommendations relate to ensuring a fair opportunity process for vendors, describing the services or supplies needed, and in complying with capital planning requirements.

Report analyzes DOD's use of T&M contracts and improvements needed for accountability.

Analyzes the Army's use of contractors as a large percentage of their contract specialist workforce and the implications that raises.

GAO-03-661 Report to the Subcommittee on Readiness and Management Support, Committee on Armed Services, US Senate.  Best Practices.  Improved Knowledge of DOD Service Contracts Could Reveal Significant Savings

This letter to the Senate Finance Committee applies the fair opportunity procedures of the Federal Acquisition Streamlining Act of 1994 to multiple award task order contracts, specifically as the Internal Revenue Service.

GAO recommends that OMB establish a deadline for its recent requirement that agencies develop procedures for services, including those that closely support inherently governmental functions, and include two FPDS-NG codes in guidance for agencies’ use of service contracts and in the cost savings initiative for management support services. OMB generally agreed with the recommendations.
GAO Report on Services Acquisitions

Since 2010, the Department of Defense (DOD) has made changes to its regulations, policies, and guidance and taken other steps to improve its use of incentive contracts. DOD has promoted greater use of objective incentives—which measure contractor performance toward predetermined targets using a formula—through incentive fee contracts, partly to better motivate cost control. These changes are reflected in DOD’s increased use of incentive fee contracts and decreased use of award fee contracts, which involve fees paid based on a more subjective evaluation of contractor performance and have not always been linked to acquisition outcomes.

Why GAO Did This Study
IGCEs are the government’s best estimate of a contract’s potential costs—an important tool for both program and contracting officials to provide information when planning for and awarding contracts. IGCEs are particularly critical for service contracts—accounting for more than $270 billion in government contract spending in fiscal year 2015—to ensure the costs associated with labor are fully understood.
GAO was asked to review federal agencies’ use of IGCEs. This report examines the extent to which (1) selected departments developed IGCEs for service contracts and (2) selected departments’ IGCEs were useful in supporting the acquisition planning process.
To conduct this work, GAO selected six departments that in fiscal year 2015, the most current data available, were among the top spenders on services or had a high percentage of spending on services. GAO reviewed a random non-generalizable sample of 76 service contracts, and compared IGCEs and related documentation with GAO’s cost estimating guide. GAO also conducted interviews with contracting and program officials.

Table 1: Key Practices for a Cloud Computing Service Level Agreement (SLA)

GAO-05-179 Successes and challenges in DHS's efforts to create an effective acquisition organization.

Provides relevant content today and a history of improvements of DoD Services Acquistion

In June 2013, GAO recommended that DOD establish baseline data, specific goals for improving service acquisition, and associated metrics to assess its progress.

Securing, Stabilizing, and Rebuilding Iraq: GAO Audit Approach and Findings

GAO 17-482 DEFENSE CONTRACTED SERVICES DOD Needs to Reassess Key Leadership Roles and Clarify Policies for Services Requirements Review Boards (SRRBs)  What the GAO found:
 - The Department of Defense (DOD) has not fully implemented the three key leadership positions—functional domain experts (FDE), component level leads (CLL), and senior services managers (SSM)—that were identified in DOD’s January 2016 instruction and which were to enable DOD to more strategically manage service acquisitions.
 - Services Requirements Review Boards were intended to prioritize and approve services in a comprehensive portfolio-based manner in order to achieve efficiencies, but the military commands GAO reviewed did not do so. Instead, commands largely leveraged existing contract review boards that occurred throughout the year and focused on approving individual contracts.
GAO recommends that DOD reassess the roles, responsibilities, authorities, and organizational placement of the three key leadership positions; and clarify policies concerning the purpose and timing of the Review Board process. DOD concurred with the recommendations.

GAO Report on Chief Management Office (CMO) business reform teams. Includes Service Contracts and Category Management Reform Group (Team).