GAO Comments on the Defense Management Improvement Act

GAO discussed the proposed Defense Management Improvement Act. GAO found that: (1) the act would include provisions to ease and simplify the acquisition process, eliminate excess rules and regulations, reduce the number of government auditors and inspectors in contractor plants, and reduce costs; (2) the act would not identify which laws would be relaxed, and did not recognize the unique nature of defense acquisition; (3) the Department of Defense (DOD) did not demonstrate that existing acquisition programs and initiatives would achieve the desired results; (4) procurement fraud investigations have resulted in more than 600 indictments, 500 convictions, and $500 million in monetary recoveries in the past 2 years; (5) the DOD Contractor Risk Assessment Guide program would help restore trust and confidence in defense acquisition and reduce oversight and auditing overtime; (6) the DOD record of meeting costs, schedules, and performance goals was no better for systems with reduced oversight than for those systems without oversight reductions; (7) DOD failed to fully implement its initiatives designed to improve the acquisition process; and (8) DOD has proposed to adopt commercial procurement procedures, but has not placed emphasis on taking full advantage of legal opportunities to procure commercially available products.