The Effectiveness of the Defense Contract Audit Agency Can Be Improved

Gao ID: FGMSD-79-25 May 10, 1979

The Defense Contract Audit Agency (DCAA) is the only Department of Defense (DOD) audit organization designated to audit DOD contracts. While DCAA work is generally rated highly by users, the problems that do occur using DCAA products tend to increase government procurement cost.

Failure of some contracting officers to make use of DCAA findings resulted in higher costs to the government. Despite procurement regulations, DCAA many times does not have access to all of the contractor's records necessary for an effective audit. DCAA has not followed up adequately on the reports it issues; and contracting officers often have not provided the feedback necessary for the agency to improve its service. The low priority given to defective pricing reviews seems inappropriate. Time constraints and an excessive work load have sometimes resulted in substandard audit work.

Recommendations

Our recommendations from this work are listed below with a Contact for more information. Status will change from "In process" to "Open," "Closed - implemented," or "Closed - not implemented" based on our follow up work.

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