Preliminary Observations on DOD Estimates of Contract Termination Liability.

摘要

This report responds to the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2013. Section 812 of that Act mandates that GAO report to the congressional defense committees on the extent to which DOD is considering potential termination liability as a factor in entering into and terminating contracts. The Act also mandated that DOD review relevant acquisition guidance and take appropriate actions to ensure that program managers for major defense acquisition programs are preparing estimates of potential contract termination liability. This is the first of two reports GAO plans to issue in this area. The second addresses program cancellations and will be issued in early 2014. To meet GAO's requirement under Section 812, this report (1) describes the results of DOD's assessment, and (2) presents preliminary observations on termination liability estimates from GAO's ongoing work. To conduct this work, GAO reviewed DOD's assessment, in which DOD reviewed relevant acquisition guidance and collected information on a sample of six programs. GAO also interviewed DOD officials responsible for conducting the assessment. In addition, GAO leveraged ongoing work looking at weapons systems and program cancellations to further assess DOD efforts to consider potential termination liability.