NASA Procurement: Opportunities to Improve Contract Management

GAO discussed the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's (NASA) management oversight of contract: (1) cost increases and time extensions; (2) modifications; and (3) administration activities performed by other government organizations. GAO noted that: (1) at the four largest NASA procurement centers 1 in every 3 of over 1,800 contracts sampled had cost increases, and more than 2 of every 5 had time extensions; (2) NASA has changed its Financial and Contractual Status System to enable cost and time increases to be determined routinely and comprehensively on NASA contracts; (3) NASA centers experienced such management contract cost and time modification problems as untimely completion of contract change negotiations, inadequate evaluation of proposed contract changes, unauthorized personnel directing contractors to perform additional work, and the noncompetitive addition of new work to contracts without sole-source justification; (4) the 4 NASA procurement centers, within 7 months, reduced the number and value of unpriced contract changes from 284 changes valued at $6.2 billion to 234 changes valued at about $2.2 billion; (5) NASA centers do not comply with regulations for delegating contract administration functions nor do they establish sufficient communication with the Defense Contract Management Command (DCMC) in coordinating delegation of contract administration functions; and (6) NASA has negotiated with DCMC to revise the billing format and system and has established a new procedure to ensure that appropriate contract administration planning conferences are held.