Impact of Acquisition Reform and Political-Fiscal Variables on Air Force GAO-Protests Processed

摘要

The purpose of this research was to determine whether the Air Force contract protest frequency rises or falls with reforms in the acquisition process, number of AF Contract Actions, number of AF Contract Dollars, AF-GAO sustain Rate, and/or General Economic Conditions (represented by the U.S. unemployment rate). Specific management questions address the effectiveness of acquisition reform initiatives, a comparison to other external factors, and the identification of AF-GAO Protest trends between 1984 and 1998. The research problem was explored with a thorough literature review and formulation of a multiple regression model. The research identified the need to evaluate the impact of acquisition reform relative to the other quantitative factors. In summary, the research provided a statistical tool to estimate and predict the AF GAO-Protests Processed relative to the identified variables. The results indicated that AF Contract Actions, Dollars, and General Economic Conditions were statistically significant as a predictor; however, the GAO Sustain Rate was not useful. Finally, the acquisition reform qualitative variable was not statistically significant to the model. Since regression analysis was used, care should be exercised in using the model beyond the specified region.