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GSA Transportation Audits: Contract Costs Can Be Reduced

NSIAD-92-157 Published: Jun 03, 1992. Publicly Released: Jun 03, 1992.
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Highlights

Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the General Services Administration's (GSA) use of private companies to audit commercial transportation charges, to determine whether: (1) collection of additional data resulted in more thorough audits; (2) GSA verified that contractors were providing the required data and whether GSA was using them; (3) the contractors duplicated the Department of Defense's (DOD) data collection efforts; and (4) GSA had a basis for establishing its fees for data collection.

Recommendations

Recommendations for Executive Action

Agency Affected Recommendation Status
General Services Administration The Administrator of General Services, when contracting for future postpayment audit services, should not request or pay for data collection services unless GSA can show that collecting data on every billing document has made the audits more thorough and that the data already collected by DOD are not adequate for oversight purposes. If GSA determines that some data collection is necessary, it should establish adequate controls over data collection payments.
Closed – Implemented
GSA accepted bids based on a commission-only basis and awarded contracts on that basis. Data collection was not asked for and will not be paid for. GSA cannot calculate actual savings as this would be based on requirements, which cannot be determined until post payment is accomplished.

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Topics

AuditorsAuditsCommon carrier operationsContract costsContract oversightContractor personnelData collectionFeesPrivatizationRedundancyTransportation rates