Acquisition Reform

GAO generally supports the acquisition reform proposals now before Congress. Most of the proposed changes to the current test and evaluation legislation should not be enacted, however, because they address perceived rather than documented problems and because they would undermine a key management control over the system acquisition process. Given the problems that GAO continues to find in the acquisition of defense systems, the priority given to test and evaluation should increase, not decrease, as would occur if the proposed legislation were enacted. GAO's reviews of test and evaluation issues, the defense system acquisition process, and many individual weapon programs have consistently shown that independent operational test and evaluation is the most realistic way, short of war, to determine whether the Pentagon is getting what it paid for. GAO also believes that, if a program is "sold" on meeting certain requirements, the Defense Department's commitment to that program should be strictly limited until those requirements have been adequately demonstrated. Hence, GAO believes that any change to the current test and evaluation legislation should at least preserve, if not strengthen, this "fly-before-buy" principle.