Activities of the United States General Accounting Office concerning Office of Management and Budget Circular A-76 and Its Implementation by the Department of Defense

There is a need for more effective implementation of the OMB Circular A-76 policy, which is a general policy of reliance on private sources for goods and services, by both the Office of Management and Budget and the Department of Defense (DOD). GAO reports have criticized DOD's A-76 program with respect to: unsupported justifications for in-house work, significant in-house functions that were not periodically reviewed as to the possibility of contracting out, required reviews that were behind schedule, areas of significant potential savings that were not being reviewed, incomplete and inaccurate identification of commercial or industrial activities performed in-house, failure to report new commercial or industrial activities initiated in-house, and unreliable contract cost estimates. DOD has devoted considerable time and effort to implementing the A-76 policy, whereas some of the civilian agencies have only recently established implementation programs. Many of the problems and issues that have been identified in the DOD's implementation of the A-76 policy remain unresolved. The Government should continue to pursue its policy of relying on the private sector and encouraging private industry to compete with the executive departments in providing needed commercial or industrial products and services.