Summary

In response to a congressional request, GAO provided information on the Department of Defense's (DOD): (1) efforts to reconcile the cost data for its Central Design Activities (CDA); and (2) studies addressing CDA consolidation issues.

GAO found that the: (1) revised DOD budget included nine additional CDA and an estimated $180 million more than its initial budget; and (2) Navy included certain developmental costs which it did not report in its previous budget request. GAO also found that DOD officials attributed the differences between the data GAO gathered and the data in the budget requests to: (1) activities' erroneous reporting of production and operation costs; (2) inclusion in the GAO data of information from organizations that were not CDA; (3) some organizations' lack of response to the GAO survey; and (4) time constraints, which limited the information included in the budget. In addition, GAO found that: (1) DOD planned to strengthen its accounting procedures to improve the reporting of CDA obligations and cost estimates; (2) the Marine Corps is currently conducting a CDA consolidation study; (3) both the Navy and the Air Force consolidated their CDA functions following studies they conducted in 1986; and (4) neither the Army nor the Defense Logistics Agency have contemplated any consolidation studies.