Review of Government-Wide Contracting Systems for Film and Videotape Productions

GAO reviewed the utilization and operation of the uniform, Government-wide contracting systems for film and videotape productions.

GAO found that the reports required to be submitted by agencies to the National Audiovisual Center are sometimes inaccurate, incomplete, and untimely and that the utilization of the contracting systems by Federal agencies could be improved. Complete and reliable data are still lacking on the number and value of film and videotape productions being contracted for Government-wide. While agencies are required to annually submit these data to the National Audiovisual Center, officials of the Center have had problems getting agencies to submit timely and accurate reports. Audiovisual program managers at the agencies GAO visited do not verify data that they receive from their regional or field offices before summarizing and forwarding the data to the Center. Without some type of verification, the data are of questionable accuracy and therefore unreliable. Correcting the data accuracy problem is an important first step in correcting the apparent underutilization of the uniform, Government-wide contracting systems for motion picture and videotape productions. The DOD Directorate for Audiovisual Management Policy managers do not compare the number and value of contract awards made through the contracting systems with the total number and value of all Federal film and videotape contracting. Without making these comparisons, managers cannot identify agencies that consistently underutilize the contracting systems and cannot evaluate the reasons for underutilization.

Recommendations

Our recommendations from this work are listed below with a Contact for more information. Status will change from "In process" to "Open," "Closed - implemented," or "Closed - not implemented" based on our follow up work.

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