NASA Procurement

Management Oversight of Contract Costs and Time Changes Could Be Enhanced Gao ID: NSIAD-91-259 September 30, 1991

As part of its ongoing review of NASA contract administration and management practices, GAO estimated the extent of cost increases and time extensions in contracts at NASA"s four largest procurement centers--Goddard Space Flight Center, Marshall Space Flight Center, Kennedy Space Center, and Johnson Space Center. GAO's estimates indicate that about one in every three contracts in the population GAO sampled experienced cost increases and more than two in every five experienced time extensions. The results varied across centers, and by type of contract and contract product. GAO developed its sampling approach because it could not obtain comprehensive information on contract cost increases and time extensions from NASA's centralized database--the Financial and Contractual Status System. While this system was not designed to track contract cost increases and time extensions, it does contain the basic data needed and could be enhanced to provide this capability. With modifications to the system, routine and comprehensive tracking of cost increases and schedule delays could be accomplished without using statistical sampling. Because of the uncertainty of statistical sampling, its usefulness as a general management tool can be limited. NASA has agreed to change the system so that it can routinely provide comprehensive information on contract cost increases and time extensions.

GAO found that: (1) 32 percent of the contracts at the four centers increased in cost, with an overall contract cost increase of $257 annually; (2) 41 percent of the contracts experienced schedule and delivery date extensions, with an average annual extension rate of almost 9 percent; (3) the statistical results varied across centers, and by type of contract and contract product; and (4) the centralized NASA database, the Financial and Contractual Status System (FACS), was not designed to track contract cost increases and time extensions.

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.

Director: Team: Phone:


The Justia Government Accountability Office site republishes public reports retrieved from the U.S. GAO These reports should not be considered official, and do not necessarily reflect the views of Justia.