A new Government Accountability Office (GAO) report has found that the Department of Defense (DoD) needs to establish formal procedures for standardizing cost documentation in line with the department’s reform efforts.
GAO said in the report released Thursday that it included the DoD's business transformation procedures to its high-risk list due to weaknesses in the approach that could lead to fraud, waste and abuse.
While the DoD has improved its development of cost baselines, the department’s financial data did not attribute costs to specific activities in the fiscal 2019 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), the watchdog noted.
According to GAO, the DoD's push to improve its baselines “shows promise in addressing the weaknesses” in the department’s cost documentation activities, .
However, the watchdog noted that the DoD “had limited information on the analysis underlying its savings estimates” and did not clearly align its cost savings initiatives with the department’s reform strategy.
The Pentagon reported that it saved $37 billion due to its reform efforts, GAO noted.
