Summary: Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the Department of Defense's (DOD) Continuous Acquisition and Life-Cycle Support (CALS) initiative, focusing on: (1) two key CALS programs; (2) the impact of the Automated Document Conversion System (ADCS) on the initiative; and (3) the justification for using noncompetitive procedures to expand the Army-specific CALS contract to a DOD-wide scope. GAO noted that: (1) DOD has not made the basic decisions necessary to successfully implement CALS; (2) there is no single point of accountability for CALS; (3) DOD has not demonstrated that the Joint Computer-Aided Acquisition and Logistics Support program will meet the need for a standard, consistent approach for managing technical data across DOD; (4) DOD has not resolved technical and management problems in the Joint Engineering and Data Management Information and Control System (JEDMICS) that prevent it from meeting CALS goals to improve the management of technical data; (5) DOD plans to use ADCS to convert JEDMICS data to alternative formats, but ADCS tests will not confirm the system's effectiveness or efficiency; (6) DOD has not demonstrated that JEDMICS data need to be converted; (7) DOD has not justified using noncompetitive procedures to expand the CALS contract DOD-wide; and (8) DOD should consider whether off-the-shelf systems could meet CALS goals, since it has not yet fully defined its requirements for weapon-systems life cycle support.
