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Pentagon Auditors Pressured To Favor Contractors, GAO Says
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Many of the companies named by Senate staff members as being in the GAO report could not be reached last night for comment.
Like many other federal agencies, DCAA has had its contracting workforce cut. The GAO said that DCAA went from having 6,000 auditors in 1989 to about 3,500 last year and that workers are frequently told to rush their reports. The agency handles about 40,000 audits a year.
The GAO said that in a 2005 case it investigated, DCAA auditors found six "significant deficiencies" where the contractor -- later identified as Interstate Electronics, a subsidiary of L3 -- overbilled the government $246,000, plus another $3.5 million in potential overcharges. When agency auditors reported the problems, they were replaced. New managers dropped the findings and changed the agency's opinion from "inadequate" to "adequate."
In another case, involving Northrop Grumman, the GAO said that supervisors at DCAA who were responsible for audits on contracts for aircraft parts and systems worth $6.4 billion didn't review papers and trainees were assigned to work on the case. GAO said the DCAA field office "lost control" of papers on the case because the trainees didn't "always properly enter them" in the electronic system.
Northrop spokesman Randy Belote said his company was reviewing the GAO report. "We are reserving comment on the report until we have completed our review," he said.
Staff researcher Julie Tate contributed to this report.
