Actions are needed to provide more consistent data to Congress on how funds are allocated by military departments and defense agencies for depot maintenance, GAO has said.
It said that military departments and defense agencies may use no more than 50 percent of annual depot maintenance funding for work performed by private-sector contractors, but that weaknesses in DoD’s financial management systems and the processes used to collect and report “50-50” data made it impossible to validate claims that requirements were met.
GAO identified errors in the data reported for fiscal 2005 that, if adjusted, would increase the Army’s private sector funding allocation percentage from 49.4 percent to 50 percent.
It said that 50-50 funding allocation data were not being consistently reported because some maintenance depots were reporting expenditures rather than following guidance and reporting obligations issued by the Defense secretary’s office.
Combining obligations and expenditures produces an inaccurate accounting of 50-50 funding allocations, GAO said.
It said GAO also found amounts associated with inter-service depot maintenance work may not accurately reflect the actual allocation of private and public sector funds because visibility is limited.
While DoD has taken steps to improve the quality of data in response to past reports, it has not fully addressed persistent deficiencies that have limited 50-50 data accuracy, according to GAO-07-126.
It said reported projections do not represent reasonable estimates of the ratio of public to private sector funding allocations for depot maintenance for fiscal 2006 and 2007 due to data inaccuracies — and the projected numbers often did not include supplemental funds, which could change the allocation percentages, GAO said.
It said however that the Air Force is implementing plans to ensure allocation requirements are met through fiscal 2010, which could entail returning some maintenance work — including the F-100 engine — back to the Air Force from the private sector.
