Only the Navy complies with an internal requirement to provide efficiency data for service requirements valued at $10 million or more. Image: Casimiro PT/Shutterstock.com
By: FEDweek StaffDoD spends about half of its contracting dollars on services such as administrative and technical support but does not have a clear grasp of current spending on service contracts or its future needs, resulting in “missed opportunities to identify efficiencies and potential cost savings,” GAO has said.
In response to language in a DoD budget bill, GAO said the department “has processes to validate individual service requirements but lacks some data needed to identify broader efficiencies among those requirements.”
For example, it said that among the military departments only the Navy complies with an internal requirement to provide data that can be reviewed to identify efficiencies for service requirements valued at $10 million or more, while the Air Force aggregates such data only for those above $100 million and the Army not at all.
It added that while DoD has made progress in forecasting needs, the military departments “lacked timely guidance on implementing the forecasting requirement and the methodology and data sources to use.” A working group established early this year to address those issues is still in its early stages and has not set a timeline for producing such guidance, it said.
Without that, DoD “cannot ensure that future budget submissions—starting with fiscal year 2026—will provide Congress with reliable and useful information for decision-making and oversight,” said GAO.
It said that the Pentagon agreed with three recommendations addressing those issues and partially concurred with two others.
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