Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration Lacks Core Elements for a Successful Acquisition Function

摘要

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) relies on the procurement of goods and services to achieve its primary mission of reducing crashes, injuries, and fatalities involving large trucks and buses. In fiscal year 2009, FMCSA received a $234 million budget for its operations and programs to support its mission-$80 million or 34 percent of which was for the procurement of goods and services. FMCSA also relies heavily on contract arrangements that place a high risk on the Agency because they tie the contractor's profit to the number of hours worked, thus imposing the risk of cost overruns on the Government. FMCSA spends about 40 percent of its dollars on such contracts compared to about 5 percent Government wide. We performed this audit at the request of FMCSA's former Administrator. Our audit objectives were to determine whether FMCSA's contract award and administration practices comply with applicable laws and regulations. As a result, we reviewed FMCSA's (1) acquisition planning and competition of contracts, (2) contract administration and oversight, and (3) acquisition infrastructure. Our audit work included a review of 27 FMCSA contracts valued at $192 million from a universe of contract actions reported between fiscal year 2005 and January 12, 2009. We conducted this audit in accordance with generally accepted government auditing standards and believe the evidence we obtained provides a reasonable basis for our findings and conclusions based on our audit objectives.