Military Operations: Contractors Provide Vital Services to Deployed Forces but Are Not Adequately Addressed in DOD Plans
GAO-03-695
Published: Jun 24, 2003. Publicly Released: Jun 24, 2003.
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Highlights
The Department of Defense (DOD) uses contractors to provide a wide variety of services for U.S. military forces deployed overseas. We were asked to examine three related issues: (1) the extent of contractor support for deployed forces and why DOD uses contractors; (2) the extent to which such contractors are considered in DOD planning, including whether DOD has backup plans to maintain essential services to deployed forces in case contractors can no longer provide the services; and (3) the adequacy of DOD's guidance and oversight mechanisms in managing overseas contractors efficiently.
Recommendations
Recommendations for Executive Action
| Agency Affected | Recommendation | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Department of Defense | To promote better planning, guidance, and oversight regarding the use of contractors to support deployed forces, the Secretary of Defense should direct the heads of DOD components to comply with DOD instruction 3020.37 by completing the first review of contracts to identify those providing mission essential services. This review should be completed by the end of calendar year 2004. |
DOD does not see the value of meeting the requirements of DOD I 3020.37 and has no intention of implementing the recommendation despite the fact that it agreed with our recommendation.
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| Department of Defense | To promote better planning, guidance, and oversight regarding the use of contractors to support deployed forces, the Secretary of Defense should direct the Undersecretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness to develop procedures to monitor the implementation of DOD Instruction 3020.37. |
DOD does not see the value of meeting the requirements of DOD I 3020.37 and has no intention of implementing the recommendation despite the fact that it agreed with our recommendation.
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| Department of Defense | To promote better planning, guidance, and oversight regarding the use of contractors to support deployed forces, the Secretary of Defense should develop DOD-wide guidance and doctrine on how to manage contractors that support deployed forces. The guidance should (a) establish baseline policies for the use of contractors to support deployed forces, (b) delineate the roles and responsibilities of commanders regarding the management and oversight of contractors that support deployed forces, and (c) integrate other guidance and doctrine that may affect DOD responsibilities to contractors in deployed locations into a single document to assure that commanders are aware of all applicable policies. Additionally, the Secretary of Defense should direct the service secretaries to develop procedures to assure implementation of the DOD guidance. | In June 2003, GAO recommended that the Secretary of Defense develop DOD-wide guidance and doctrine on how to manage contractors who support deployed forces. Our recommendation stated that the guidance should (1) establish baseline policies for the use of contractors to support deployed forces, (2) delineate the roles and responsibilities of commanders regarding the management and oversight of contractors who support deployed forces, and (3) integrate other guidance and doctrine that may affect DOD responsibilities to contractors in deployed locations into a single document to assure that commanders are aware of all applicable policies. In October 2005, DOD issued DOD instruction 3020.41,...
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| Department of Defense | To promote better planning, guidance, and oversight regarding the use of contractors to support deployed forces, the Secretary of Defense should develop and require the use of standardized deployment language in contracts that support deployed forces. The Defense Federal Acquisition Regulation Supplement should be amended to require standard clauses in such contracts that are awarded by DOD and to address deployment in orders placed by DOD under other agencies' contracts. This language should address the need to deploy into and around the theater, required training, entitlements, force protection, and other deployment related issues. | In June 2003, GAO recommended that DOD develop and require the use of standardized deployment language in contracts that may require contractors to deploy with military forces. Specifically, we recommended that the contract language should address the need to deploy into and around a theater, training, entitlements, force protection, and other deployment issues. GAO also recommended that the Defense Federal Acquisition Regulation Supplement (DFARS) be amended to require that this clause be included in deployment contracts. DOD concurred with our recommendation and, in May 2005, DOD announced in the Federal Register that they were amending the DFARS, effective June 6, 2005, to include a...
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| Department of Defense | To promote better planning, guidance, and oversight regarding the use of contractors to support deployed forces, the Secretary of Defense should develop training courses for commanding officers and other senior leaders who are deploying to locations with contractor support. Such training could provide information on the roles and responsbilities of the Defense Contract Management Agency and the contracting officer's representative and the role of the commander in the contracting process and the limits of the commander's authority. Also, contracting officers should ensure that those individuals selected as contracting officer's representatives complete one of the established contracting officer's representative training courses before they assume their duties. |
DOD has not implemented this recommendation despite the fact that it concurred with our recommendation. We continue to believe the recommendation is valid and a similar recommendation is included in GAO-07-145.
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| Department of Defense | To promote better planning, guidance, and oversight regarding the use of contractors to support deployed forces, the Secretary of Defense should, to improve the commander's visibility over, and understanding of, the extent and types of services being provided by contractors, direct the Under Secretary of Defense (Comptroller) to implement the changes to the department's Financial Management Regulations previously agreed to with these modifications: (a) the Financial Management Regulations should specify the the biannual report include a synopsis of the services being provided and a list of contractor entitlements; (b) the report should include all contracts that directly support U.S. contingency operations including those funded by the services base program accounts; and (c) the changes should be finalized by January 1, 2004. | In June 2003, GAO recommended that the Secretary of Defense take steps to improve the commander's visibility over, and understanding of, the extent and types of services being provided by contractors, as well as the support the military is to provide to the contractors' employees. We recommended that DOD provide this information to the military service serving as the executive agent for an area of operation and that the information include the types of support contractor employees are entitled to under the terms of their contract, as well as a synopsis of services being provided under the contract. In October 2005 DOD issued DOD instruction 3020.41 "Contractor Personnel Authorized to...
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