Word: gao
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...most recent report of the GAO--Congress's financial watchdog--has received the most publicity. Published in November, it established that 23 defense contractors, including Boeing Company, Sikorsky Aircraft, and Sperry Gyroscope Company, have violated a series of government regulations on the use of defense equipment. These 23 contractors hold $1 billion in government property, in addition to special tooling and special test equipment valued at $347 million. Both the GAO and the Joint Economic Committee say that the conduct of the 23 contractors is "representative" of the 5,500 contractors holding $15 billion in government property...
...contractors have widely ignored a DOD regulation requiring them to keep official records of government property in their possession. The GAO also found that some contractors have so much government-owned industrial equipment that it is either little used or used extensively for commercial work. Contractors frequently disregard regulations requiring advanced approval from the Office of Emergency Planning before using government-owned machine tools for commercial purposes more than 25 per cent of the time. One Cleveland corporation was lent a $1.4 million steel press at low rentals and subsequently used the press more than three-quarters of the time...
...GAO report also charged that the DOD fails to apply rental rates uniformly and to collect all it is owed. In one case where the Defense Department charged a contractor $226,400 for rent, the GAO calculated that $809,000 should have been collected...
According to Senator Proxmire, however, the Defense Department acts "as if the law is something that they can take or leave, and decided to leave it." He's probably right. A GAO survey of 242 firms conducted from April 1965 to June 1966 found only 20 in full compliance. The reason is the Defense Department had never sent the correct forms requesting the cost information. They were gathering dust in a warehouse...
...Proxmire, also learned that the price estimates the DOD had been accepting with no proof were made without reuquiring the contractors to establish formal cost estimating systems. The DOD's own auditors have pleaded for 10 years to put an end to such guesswork. Contractors ignored them until the GAO started putting on the heat early last year...