Procurement
Project 12,000 at the San Antonio Air Logistics Center Gao ID: NSIAD-86-119BR June 25, 1986Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the Air Force's Project 12,000, an intensive effort to reduce its open purchase requests backlog, to determine whether it took inappropriate measures.
GAO found that: (1) there was little evidence that the Air Force took shortcuts during Project 12,000 that had any substantial effect on contract awards; (2) the Air Force sent fewer pricing assistance requests to the Directorate of Competition Advocacy; and (3) the quality of spare parts price analysis improved somewhat. GAO also found that several factors contributed to the project's success, namely: (1) the use of 45,000 overtime hours as compared to the 28,000 hours used in the previous 3 months; (2) better control of the administrative functions involving routing purchase requests, contract writing, and data collection and reporting of contracts actually awarded; and (3) awarding contracts as soon as the buyer established a reasonable and fair price.