Monday, October 6, 2008

GAO: CONTINGENCY CONTRACTING: DOD, State, and USAID Contracts and Contractor Personnel in Iraq and Afghanistan


GAO: CONTINGENCY CONTRACTING: DOD, State, and USAID Contracts and Contractor Personnel in Iraq and Afghanistan

Highlights of GAO-09-19, a report to congressional committees.

The Departments of Defense (DOD) and State and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) have relied extensively on contractors to carry out a range of services in Iraq and Afghanistan. While recognizing the benefits of using contractors, GAO and others have noted the challenges and risks associated with an increased reliance on contractors and the ability of agencies to manage their growing number of contractors.

As directed by the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2008, GAO analyzed DOD, State, and USAID data on contracting activities in Iraq and Afghanistan for fiscal year 2007 and the first half of fiscal year 2008 including;

(1) the number and value of contracts and the extent they were awarded competitively;
(2) the number of contractor personnel, including those performing security functions and;
(3) the number of contractor personnel who were killed or wounded.

GAO also reviewed the status of the three agencies’ memorandum of understanding (MOU) related to maintaining data on contracts and contractor personnel. GAO reviewed selected contract files and compared personnel data to other available sources to assess the reliability of the data reported by the agencies.

GAO provided a draft of this report to DOD, State, USAID, and the Department of Labor for comment. State and USAID provided technical comments that were incorporated where appropriate.

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