Summary: In response to a congressional request, GAO examined the Department of Defense's (DOD) acquisition work force, specifically program managers and contracting officers and their: (1) roles in weapons system acquisition; (2) tools to carry out their jobs; (3) external influences; and (4) career preparation.
A program manager heads each weapon system acquisition with assistance from various specialists, including a contracting officer who is legally authorized to commit the government to contracts. GAO found that the program managers' and contracting officers' capability to contract for new weapon systems is limited because: (1) their roles in early program phases are not fully defined or well understood in practice; (2) acquisition strategy development lacks the criteria to tailor the competition's scope and intent to individual programs; (3) external factors affect many programs and create a poor climate for logical, planned program development; and (4) career programs do not provide the intense and diverse experience, training, qualification criteria, and incentives to develop program managers and contracting officers. GAO also found that about half of the 17 new programs it reviewed fell short of the minimum competition level that DOD policy called for because: (1) DOD has not identified the program characteristics sensitive to various levels of competition or the criteria to apply them; (2) insufficient advance funding limited the programs; (3) many recently appointed program managers lacked substantial program-office or other acquisition experience, as well as specialized training; (4) the selection of contracting officers was not based on specific experience, education, or training; and (5) military career paths did not identify the types of acquisition experience desired.
