DoD still faces challenges in ensuring that it fully reviews its inventory of contracted services, and in particular whether contractors are performing services closely associated with inherently governmental functions, says a GAO report.
One red flag is the widely varying reports among the military services, it said. For 2013, the Army reported that nearly 80 percent of the $9.7 billion it obligated for certain services such as professional and management services included closely associated with inherently governmental functions. In contrast, the Navy and other DoD components reported about 13 percent of the $10.7 billion they obligated for similar contracted services included such functions.
GAO said it found that the lack of documentation on whether a proposed contract included such functions “may result in inventory review processes incorrectly reporting these contracts. At least 12 of the 28 contract actions GAO reviewed appear to include these functions, but—of those 12—DoD components identified only one prior to contract award and only two during the review process as such.
“Without accurate identification of the functions contractors are performing, DoD cannot be assured that proper oversight is in place or provide data on the activities and functions contractors are performing,” it said.
The military departments “have not developed plans to facilitate the use of the inventory for workforce planning or budgetary decisions nor have they appointed an accountable official to help do so, as DoD previously stated they intended to do. Further, DoD has not outlined the relationships between a management support office, military departments, and other stakeholders to facilitate the collection and use of inventory data in decision-making processes.”
