Summary: Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed an industry group letter which contested its findings on the Department of Defense's (DOD) depot maintenance program. GAO noted that: (1) it accurately reflected the share of depot maintenance funds spent in the private sector and properly determined that the amount spent was understated; (2) federal statutes limit the amount of depot maintenance work that DOD can contract out and there is no industry entitlement to a minimum share of the work allocation; (3) there may be alternative ways of collecting and reporting the depot maintenance workload data that would enable DOD to perform a more valid workload comparison; (4) it accurately stated that the depot maintenance program could reduce maintenance expenditures, overhead costs, and excess capacity; (5) although the amount of competition savings is difficult to quantify, public-private competition should remain an option for DOD when selecting a source for depot repairs; and (6) although it was unable to determine whether the public-private competition program was fair, there was insufficient evidence to recommend program termination.
