WASHINGTON, July 16 (UPI) -- The U.S. Government Accountability Office reported to Congress that contract modifications have hampered the monitoring of two missile programs.
The Missile Defense Agency, it said, has difficulty in measuring contractor performance in the Ground-based Midcourse Defense and Targets and Countermeasures programs as a result.
The two programs account for $16 billion worth of prime contracts, Fierce Government IT, an Internet news site, said in quoting the GAO report.
The Missile Defense Agency attempts to track contractor performance through a system known as Earned Value Management. Under EVM, contractors submit monthly status reports and progress is measured by comparing tasks recorded as completed and dollars spent against a baseline schedule.
The GAO, in a review conducted from February to July of this year, concluded numerous changes to the GMD and Targets and Countermeasures programs have left initial baseline schedules meaningless.
An example given was the Boeing-primed GMD program that underwent a $1.7 billion restructuring in 2007, followed by a $500 million restructuring in fiscal 2008 that was completed in fiscal 2009. In fiscal 2010 there was another restructuring for $380 million, in fiscal 2010.
According to Pentagon policy, a new integrated baseline review must be done six months after a major modification. Officials of the Defense Contract Management Agency told the GAO that GMD program officials were creating a new baseline after the second major restructuring, but when the third restructuring occurred the review was canceled.
The GAO report said the MDA said it is changing how it structures future GMD contracts so modifications to the baseline can be more easily done.
The GAO report, "Defense Acquisitions, Missile Defense Program Instability Affects Reliability of Earned Value Management Data," is available online.
