Contract Management: A Comparison of DOD and Commercial Airline Purchasing Practices

Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on the Department of Defense's (DOD) purchasing and pricing of commercially available spare parts, focusing on: (1) a comparative analysis between the purchasing and pricing practices of selected commercial passenger and freight airline companies and the practices of DOD; and (2) how airlines and DOD ensure that they are obtaining reasonable prices when buying commercial items from sole-source suppliers.