Defense purchases of services rise sharply
By Jenny Mandel
Rapid growth over the past five years in service contract costs could reflect overpayments by the Defense Department, according to the Government Accountability Office. But the advantages of freeing up uniformed personnel for combat duty and the difficulty of calculating what it would cost to do the work in-house argue against more closely analyzing the issue, auditors concluded.
In a new analysis (GAO-07-631) of Defense operations and maintenance service contracting completed at the request of House appropriators, GAO found that purchasing of services has grown steeply over the last several years.
The operations and maintenance funds that equip soldiers and maintain bases, among other uses, increased 57 percent between fiscal 2000 and fiscal 2005, largely due to operations in Iraq and Afghanistan and disaster response, GAO found. Service contracts over the same period rose an even steeper 73 percent.
Full story: http://www.govexec.com/story_page.cfm?articleid=37026&dcn=e_ndw
