Defense Contracting: Improved Insight and Controls Needed Over DOD's Time-and-Materials Contracts

摘要

Under time-and-materials contracts, payments to contractors are made based on the number of labor hours billed at hourly rates and, if applicable, other direct costs. Because of the risk they pose to the government, their use is supposed to be limited to cases where no other contract type is suitable. GAO was asked to identify trends in the Department of Defense's (DOD) obligations under time-and-materials contracts; analyze what DOD is buying under these contracts; assess why DOD is using them and whether actions are being taken to ensure that they are used only when no other contract type is suitable; evaluate DOD's monitoring of contractor performance; and determine the differences between the labor rates prime contractors bill DOD and the rates in their subcontracts. GAO reviewed 82 time-and-materials contracts, agreements, and orders and examined prime contract and subcontract labor rates on 12 additional contracts or agreements. DOD's reported obligations under time-and-materials contracts increased from almost $5 billion in 1996 to about $10 billion in 2005. But this dollar amount is understated because DOD has not been coding contract type for orders placed under federal schedules (e.g., General Services Administration's schedule contracts). The accuracy of reported time-and-materials dollars should improve starting with fiscal year 2007 because DOD transitioned to the federal government's procurement information system, which requires contract type to be coded for every order.