Military Construction

Planning and Design Costs Gao ID: NSIAD-94-182BR June 22, 1994

This briefing report reviews the Defense Department's (DOD) military construction planning and design costs for the military services and defense agencies. GAO (1) identifies trends in these costs for DOD and its military services and defense agencies as a percentage of total project cost; (2) determines what, if any, differences exist in the percentage of total project costs directed to planning and design by project size and type; and (3) compares DOD's planning and design percentages and time devoted to planning and design to the following four civilian entities: the Coast Guard, the Federal Aviation Administration, the General Services Administration, and the Department of Veterans Affairs.

GAO found that: (1) the percentages of DOD construction costs devoted to P&D were relatively constant for fiscal year (FY) 1989 through FY 1992; (2) lower cost projects tended to have a higher percentage of P&D costs than higher cost projects; (3) there were no clear trends in P&D costs, but the Air Force's and defense agencies' P&D percentages were significantly higher than the Army's P&D percentages; (4) DOD P&D percentages were generally higher than those of the other federal agencies because the agencies did not include some administrative costs in their P&D costs; (5) DOD had significantly higher P&D costs for its medical facilities than did the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA); (6) the military services and defense agencies devoted substantially more time to P&D than the General Services Administration or VA; and (7) the Logistics Management Institute has made a number of recommendations to improve DOD cost controls and P&D reporting.



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