S. 2151, S. 2082, and S. 2196

Testimony was given concerning three Senate bills which are intended to strengthen the Department of Defense's (DOD) acquisition process. GAO found that: (1) S. 2151 provides for the establishment of an Under Secretary for Acquisition who would be responsible for setting overall policy for procurement and research and development, supervising the entire acquisition system, and establishing policy for administrative oversight and defense contractor auditing; (2) although accountability would be focused in one office, having one organization responsible for research and development and procurement could reduce the checks and balances inherent in two separate organizational elements; (3) any organizational arrangement must ensure that contract auditing remains independent of the procurement function, which would be compromised if the audit function were brought under the supervision of a procurement official; (4) the organizational arrangements proposed in S. 2082 and S. 2151 would violate the basic auditing standard of independence; and (5) the objective of S. 2196 is to ensure that the government is buying spare or repair parts at the lowest market price available.