The Air Force did not fully comply with the Buy American Act and the related Berry Amendment in a sampling of purchases examined by the DoD inspector general.
The Act generally requires that only articles, materials, and supplies that were mined, produced, or manufactured in the United States are used to fulfill federal procurement and construction contracts; the Amendment imposes similar requirements specifically on DoD and extends to items grown, reprocessed or reused.
Auditors said that of the 21 contracts they reviewed to which the Berry Amendment applies, Air Force personnel did not assure compliance in six, “because they were not familiar with the Berry Amendment, relied on their contract writing system, or because of an oversight.”
Similarly, of 33 contracts reviewed to which the Buy American Act applies, officials did not assure compliance in 12. Similarly, that was “because they were unfamiliar with the Buy American Act requirements; relied on previous contracts with similar purchases; did not complete sufficient review of the contract before award; or mistakenly omitted the clause or made an administrative error.”
As a result, the Air Force had “limited assurance” that the items purchased were indeed of American origin. The report said that the Air Force has corrected some of the deficiencies and has conducted training in response.