Sunday, November 09, 2008
Defense auditors fail to do their jobs
There really is no other way to describe the inability of the agency to oversee the billions in contracts the Defense Dept lets out every year.
In 2007 alone, DCAA performed nearly 34,000 audits covering $391 billion in contractor costs. Of that total, auditors challenged $4.6 billion, or 1.2 percent, as lacking necessary documentation. The question is, how much more could they have caught?That is a very poor return in an area rife with fraud and waste. The DCAA should be beating the defense contractors with subpoenas and withheld payments until they scream or do the job right. The savings would more than justify whatever effort is put into it.
Compared with other federal oversight organizations, such as the Government Accountability Office, DCAA's return on investment is weak. For every dollar GAO spends, it saves taxpayers $94. At DCAA, the ratio is $5 saved for every one spent.
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