Need for NASA To Provide Congress More Complete Cost Information on Its Projects

GAO made a study to determine if there were weaknesses in the cost estimating process of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) which, if corrected, would result in more accurate and reliable estimates to provide Congress with more complete cost information in its annual budget justification documents. NASA had underestimated the costs for some of its major projects. As a result NASA had to request supplemental appropriations to continue the development of the space shuttle program and is anticipating a cost overrun on another project.

For the three projects included in the study, GAO found no major problems regarding those costs which NASA included in its project estimates. However, NASA did not include certain major categories of costs in its estimates. Also, the justification that NASA provides Congress in support of its projects still does not identify the total NASA resources which will be required for the projects. Civil service salaries of personnel directly assigned to the projects were not included in the cost estimates for the projects. The budget justifications did not provide or compare a project's planning or development estimate with the current cost estimate. The budget justifications showed only the funding requirements for the budget year and the current and immediately prior year with no data showing funds used in other prior years or estimates of funding requirements through the completion of a project.

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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