DOD acquisition practices suffered cost overruns in the billions of dollars

February 2, 2008
DOD acquisition practices suffered cost overruns in the billions of dollars

The Defense Department's major weapons programs have suffered cost overruns in the billions of dollars, years-long delays and quality shortfalls because of poor acquisition practices by the department, according to a report released yesterday by the Government Accountability Office.

The GAO warned that the cost of designing and developing weapons systems could "continue to exceed estimates by billions of dollars" if the Defense Department doesn't improve its acquisition practices.

GAO Report: Walter Reed Problems Have Not Been Fixed

September 26, 2007
GAO Report: Walter Reed Problems Have Not Been Fixed

Remember Walter Reed? After the huge scandal last spring, President Bush and the members of Congress promised to improve troops' care. They promised to take action and get our wounded veterans the care they were waiting for. They promised to make things right. Well, that promise has been broken.

This week, we got definitive proof that our nation's wounded veterans are still waiting for government leaders to deliver much needed resources. According to a new report from the Government Accountability Office (GAO), the response to shoddy outpatient treatment at Walter Reed Army Medical Center has been woefully inadequate.

GAO: Homeland Security Dept. falls short

September 6, 2007
GAO: Homeland Security Dept. poorly managed its mission

WASHINGTON - Congressional auditors gave a stinging assessment of the Homeland Security Department's progress and said the department could not take credit for the absence of a terrorist attack on American soil since Sept. 11, 2001.

The department's primary mission is to prevent such a strike to and minimize the damage should an attack occur. Auditors said the U.S. is safer than it was that day in 2001, but the department has poorly managed its mission over the past four years.

GAO: Iraqi Government 'Dysfunctional,'

September 5, 2007
GAO: Iraqi Government 'Dysfunctional'

RTTNews) - A gloomy assessment on the political and military situation in Iraq released Tuesday by the Government Accountability Office has drawn criticism from commanders on the ground and reignited calls for troop withdrawals.

The congressional report, which concluded that Iraq had failed to meet all but two of the nine security goals Congress had set as part of a list of 18 benchmarks, comes just days before Army Gen. David Petraeus, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, and Ambassador Ryan Crocker deliver their much-anticipated progress report to federal lawmakers next week.

Pentagon disputes bleak GAO Iraq report

August 29, 2007
Pentagon disputes bleak GAO Iraq report
Iraq, the Pentagon has asked that some of the negative assessments be revised.

Pentagon press secretary Geoff Morrell said Thursday that after reviewing a draft of the Government Accountability Office report — which has not yet been made public — policy officials "made some factual corrections" and "offered some suggestions on a few of the actual grades" assigned by the GAO.

GAO Draft at Odds With White House

August 30, 2007
GAO Draft at Odds With White House

Iraq has failed to meet all but three of 18 congressionally mandated benchmarks for political and military progress, according to a draft of a Government Accountability Office report. The document questions whether some aspects of a more positive assessment by the White House last month adequately reflected the range of views the GAO found within the administration.

The strikingly negative GAO draft, which will be delivered to Congress in final form on Tuesday, comes as the White House prepares to deliver its own new benchmark report in the second week of September, along with congressional testimony from Army Gen. David H. Petraeus, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, and Ambassador Ryan C. Crocker. They are expected to describe significant security improvements and offer at least some promise for political reconciliation in Iraq.

GAO: Army deployment data flawed

August 10, 2007
GAO: Army deployment data flawed

The Marine Corps and Army lack proper tools for tracking the number of days troops are deployed, an oversight that could affect deploying members' pay or operational tempo, according to a Government Accountability Office report.

A July 17 report said that while the Defense Department has submitted personnel tempo data to Congress since 2001, the Corps and Army don't have the ability to identify faulty data, and they lack quality-control procedures for ensuring accuracy of the data.

Such information is used to determine a Marine's eligibility for extra leave days if he is deployed or mobilized beyond Pentagon goals. It also would be used to pin down eligibility for high-tempo deployment pay, if such compensation was reinstated by the Defense Department.

Report blasts U.S. for failures in fighting terrorism

June 25, 2007
Report blasts U.S. for failures in fighting terrorism

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A just-released report slams the federal government for failing to coordinate the work of U.S. law enforcement agencies overseas to fight terrorism.

The Government Accountability Office found that in one country a lack of clarity about the roles and responsibilities of the FBI and the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency may have compromised several investigations intended to identify and disrupt potential terrorist activities.

The White House has long issued directives asking that U.S. law enforcement agencies assist foreign nations' anti-terrorism efforts.

But the report finds that embassy and law enforcement officials told the GAO "they had received little or no guidance" on how to accomplish that.

The issue of roles and responsibilities "remains unresolved and is still subject to ongoing debates within the administration," it said.

Our Nation's Bleak Long-Term Fiscal Outlook

February 23, 2007
Our Nation's Bleak Long-Term Fiscal Outlook

The long-term fiscal outlook results from a large and persistent gap
between expected revenues and expected spending.

For GAO's "Baseline extended" simulation, closing the fiscal gap would
require spending cuts or tax increases equal to 3.6 percent of the
entire economy each year over the next 75 years, or a total of $26
trillion in present value terms. For GAO's alternative simulation, the
gap is 7.5 percent of the economy, or about $55 trillion in present
value terms. To put this in perspective, if we were to invest enough
today to pay off these amounts over the next 75 years, the sums needed
would amount to about $87,000 to $182,000 per person, or about $208,000
to $435,000 for each full-time worker.

Private Contractors Take On Biggest Role Ever

February 3, 2007
Private Contractors Take On Biggest Role Ever

WASHINGTON, Feb. 3 — In June, short of people to process cases of incompetence and fraud by federal contractors, officials at the General Services Administration responded with what has become the government's reflexive answer to almost every problem.

They hired another contractor.

It did not matter that the company they chose, CACI International, had itself recently avoided a suspension from federal contracting; or that the work, delving into investigative files on other contractors, appeared to pose a conflict of interest; or that each person supplied by the company would cost taxpayers $104 an hour. Six CACI workers soon joined hundreds of other private-sector workers at the G.S.A., the government's management agency.