Operation Desert Storm

In spite of its intensive efforts, GAO found no evidence to substantiate reports that foreign suppliers refused to expedite deliveries of parts and components needed in the Persian Gulf war. During the Gulf crisis, the Department of Commerce, which ran the system for speeding up deliveries of defense-related orders, received five requests from defense contractors located in the United States asking for help in accelerating deliveries from foreign suppliers. GAO found that the foreign suppliers in these five cases cooperated in a expeditious manner. Federal agency records show that the U.S. government contracted foreign governments to expedite orders of needed parts in two of these five cases. Of the remaining three cases, the foreign suppliers accelerated deliveries because of actions taken by the U.S. company in two cases and as a result of a U.S. government contract with a U.S.-based representative of the foreign supplier in one case. The Defense Department does not have a policy on the use of domestic second sources of parts and components that the military depends on foreign suppliers to provide.

GAO found that: (1) it could find no evidence substantiating the allegations that foreign suppliers refused to prioritize or expedite orders from U.S. contractors producing supplies for the Persian Gulf war effort; (2) although DOD has legislative authority to do so, it has not established a policy for second or multiple domestic sources for foreign-supplied products; (3) DOD has obtained reliable second sources where practical and cost-effective, but it has not followed through on GAO recommendations for determining its foreign-source dependency because it deems such action as cost-ineffective; and (4) by not systematically collecting data on foreign-sourcing of needed parts and products, DOD has limited its ability to know which critical domestic sources it needs to maintain for particular items.