DOD praised on IT purchase tracking

GAO Report: Defense Acquisitions: Collection and Reporting of Information Technology Purchases

The Defense Department is on schedule to meet a congressional requirement to track purchases of information technology products and services, the General Accounting Office reported.

Under the fiscal 2001 Defense authorization bill, DOD was required to collect specific procurement data on its purchases of IT products and services beginning Oct. 30, 2001. Furthermore, the law mandated that DOD submit its first annual report on the data collection to congressional committees by March 15, 2002.

"DOD is making good progress in meeting congressional requirements," the Jan. 28 GAO report said. "It has modified appropriate data collection systems to enable them to collect and report all mandated data."

DOD now collects IT procurement data centrally, and the armed services and civilian agencies began collecting the mandated data Oct. 1, 2001, GAO said in its report, "Defense Acquisitions: Collection and Reporting of Information Technology Purchases."

The data includes which products or services are purchased and for how much, whether they are commercial items, and how the purchase was completed. The data will show how much competition was involved.

DOD was planning to spend $20.3 billion on IT in fiscal 2001, and lawmakers said it was "imperative that DOD have visibility over how these funds are spent," the report said.