The Government Accountability Office has urged five federal agencies to develop measures to monitor elements in contract closeout procedures in order to manage and reduce the backlog of contracts that are due for closeout.
GAO made the recommendation after it found that the departments of Defense, State, Justice, Homeland Security and Health and Human Services lack performance measures and knowledge on the type and number of contracts that should be closed within time frames, according to a report published Thursday.
The report also showed that the Defense Contract Audit Agency failed to meet its primary goal to eliminate its backlog of incurred cost audits by fiscal year 2016 and took an average of 885 days to begin and complete the audit of incurred cost proposals from contractors in FY 2016.
DCAA also took an average of 138 days in FY 2016 to conclude the audit process “due to limited availability of DCAA staff to begin audit work,†GAO noted.
The congressional watchdog also called on DCAA to develop performance measures and evaluate its efforts to reduce its incurred cost audit backlog.
