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DCAA, Pentagon changing to give taxpayers better value

The Defense Department is trying to abate the ire of Congress about its auditing practices.

Federal News Network Staff

October 20, 2009 8:20 pm

< a min read

From “DoD plans to tame vendor business systems” on FederalNewsRadio.com:

“The Defense Department is trying to abate the ire of Congress about its auditing practices.

“Shay Assad, the DoD director of procurement and acquisition policy, told lawmakers Thursday that a new interdepartmental subcommittee would develop recommendations to solve one of the Pentagon’s biggest acquisition problems-overseeing contractor business systems.

“April Stephenson, director of DCAA, says 69 of the top 100 Defense contractors have at least one business system with deficiencies. Stephenson estimates these shortcomings cost DoD about $32 billion in 2009. She says some of that was in actual dollars and some was from cost avoidance.

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“DCAA came under fire when the Government Accountability Office found 65 of its 69 audits did not meet acceptable standards. GAO also found instances of vendor influence of audits and ‘whitewashing’ of findings, says Greg Kutz, GAO’s managing director of forensic audits and special investigations.”