Defense Acquisitions: DOD Has Implemented Section 845 Recommendations but Reporting Can Be Enhanced

[摘要] A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "In April 2000, GAO reported on the Department of Defense's (DOD) use of Section 845 agreements, also referred to as "other transactions" for prototype projects. These are transactions other than contracts, grants, or cooperative agreements that generally are not subject to federal laws and regulations applicable to procurement contracts. In December 2000, DOD revised its Section 845 guide. The guide specifies when Section 845 agreements may be used and provides criteria for tailoring terms and conditions for each agreement. Officials from the military services and defense agencies have found the new guide useful and a significant improvement over the prior version. The Secretary of Defense has required a metric--the number of participating nontraditional defense contractors--which is measurable and directly related to each agreement. This metric is tracked and reported internally. DOD explored additional metrics, but concluded that the number of nontraditional contractors was the only one that was quantifiable and tied directly to Section 845 outcomes. DOD's annual report to Congress on Section 845 agreements consists of summaries on each agreement. However, the key metric--the number of nontraditional contractors--is not clearly presented in these reports, making it difficult to gauge DOD's progress in achieving success on this objective. Further, DOD is not regularly assessing reporting on the benefits derived from completed Section 845 projects. In the absence of such assessments, congressional and DOD decision makers lack a vital piece of information that would help them determine whether this flexible procurement authority is achieving expecting results."

[发布日期] 2002-10-09 [发布机构] United States. General Accounting Office.

[关键词] Government accountability -- United States.;national defense;defense acquisitions;letter report