Acquisition

Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO: (1) reviewed the Department of Defense's (DOD) implementation of the Defense Acquisition Improvement Program; and (2) provided details on the status of the program's 33 initiatives and highlighted program managers' views on the program's effect.

GAO found that: (1) DOD did not fully implement 23 of the 33 program initiatives; (2) DOD needs to monitor program implementation to determine any needed adjustments in the program; (3) Congress and DOD worked together to achieve substantial savings through the use of multiyear contracts; (4) DOD has made limited progress in stabilizing programs, despite unprecedented increases in defense spending since 1980; (5) DOD has taken several actions to achieve more realistic budgets, but the results have been disappointing because of less-than-complete implementation; and (6) DOD is apparently giving weapons reliability and support issues higher priority in the acquisition process. GAO also found that: (1) there are longstanding problems involving the use of standard operational and support systems to achieve early weapon deployment; (2) DOD overstated its accomplishments in reducing the number of major new starts during fiscal years 1983 through 1985; and (3) although DOD made major efforts to increase full and open competition in its acquisition process, it could do more to increase competition.