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Contract Management: Proteges Value DOD's Mentor-Protege Program, but Annual Reporting to Congress Needs Improvement

GAO-07-151 Published: Jan 31, 2007. Publicly Released: Jan 31, 2007.
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Highlights

Congress authorized the Mentor-Protege Program to boost the participation of small disadvantaged businesses as subcontractors and suppliers under Department of Defense (DOD) and other contracts. The program provides incentives to major defense contractors (mentors) to help small disadvantaged businesses (proteges) strengthen their ability to compete for contracts. GAO administered a Web-based survey to determine whether former proteges believe the program enhanced their business development; examined the accuracy of the Mentor-Protege Program Office's annual reporting to Congress; determined whether DOD reported on the progress of former proteges and their contributions to small business goals; and, identified how program funds have been obligated and used.

Recommendations

Recommendations for Executive Action

Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Department of Defense To better evaluate the success of the DOD Mentor-Protege Program and to improve annual reporting to Congress, the Secretary of Defense should direct the Defense Contract Management Agency (DCMA) to ensure that all Mentor-Protege agreements are audited in accordance with DOD regulations and DCMA guidance and that these audits are summarized into a single report so that the Mentor-Protege Program Office and Congress have reliable data on whether the program is accomplishing its goals and to determine whether any corrective action is necessary.
Closed – Implemented
In written comments, DOD concurred with our recommendations, stating that the implementation of a new Defense Contract Management Agency guidebook and revised reporting processes will address our recommendations. Initially, MP program officials told us that the reporting processes had not been fully implemented. Further, the program office told us that the Secretary of completing the annual agreement reviews, DCMA also completed follow-up reviews on proteges to comply with the two-year post Mentor-Protege agreement review requirement. The September 2009 DOD Mentor-Protege Program Annual Report to Congress summarized the validated results of DCMA's 2007 and 2008 annual review activities for ongoing and two-year post Mentor-Protege agreements, as GAO had recommended in its January 2007 report. The data validation and inclusion in annual reporting to the Congress should improve the accuracy of reported results, and provide the Congress with a more reliable assessment of the Mentor-Protege program and its impact on protege firms both during and after participation in the program.
Department of Defense To better evaluate the success of the DOD Mentor-Protege Program and to improve annual reporting to Congress, the Secretary of Defense should direct direct DOD's Office of Small Business to submit its annual report to Congress only after the data in the report have been validated by DCMA and require that the annual report contain information on the progress of proteges for 2 years following their completion of the Mentor-Protege Program.
Closed – Implemented
In written comments, DOD concurred with our recommendations, stating that the implementation of a new Defense Contract Management Agency guidebook and revised reporting processes will address our recommendations. Initially, MP program officials told us that the reporting processes had not been fully implemented. Further, the program office told us that the Secretary of completing the annual agreement reviews, DCMA also completed follow-up reviews on proteges to comply with the two-year post Mentor-Protege agreement review requirement. The September 2009 DOD Mentor-Protege Program Annual Report to Congress summarized the validated results of DCMA's 2007 and 2008 annual review activities for ongoing and two-year post Mentor-Protege agreements, as GAO had recommended in its January 2007 report. The data validation and inclusion in annual reporting to the Congress should improve the accuracy of reported results, and provide the Congress with a more reliable assessment of the Mentor-Protege program and its impact on protege firms both during and after participation in the program.

Full Report

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Topics

AccountabilityContract administrationContractsDefense procurementDepartment of Defense contractorsFederal fundsMentoringProgram evaluationSmall businessSmall disadvantaged business contractorsSurveysProgram goals or objectives