DOD has also supported efforts to foster greater cooperation and interservicing among the services on regional and local levels. At the same time, DOD is advocating greater reliance on outsourcing (contracting out) base support functions. Having one service provide large-scale base support to another service also raised concern about the receiving base losing its identity and appearing to be subsumed by the base providing support. Some service officials suggested that these impediments could be overcome either through greater reliance on civilian management of base operations and/or basing a portion of an installation commander’s proficiency assessment on his or her efforts to foster greater efficiencies in base operations. Finally, interservicing agreements reached in advance of outsourcing could enhance the potential for greater efficiencies and cost savings; however, a proposed change in Office of Management and Budget’s (OMB) guidance for contracting out could reduce the potential for interservicing. Recommendations

Given the potential for significant savings in base support costs through interservicing type arrangements, we recommend that the Secretary of Defense (1) identify options and take steps to minimize the impediments to interservicing and (2) emphasize interservicing as part of contracting out deliberations to maximize potential savings and efficiencies. We were unable to determine the extent of savings realized from this consolidation. Base Support Functions Having the Potential for Interservicing

Military personnel at the collocated military bases we visited cited a range of base support functions being performed at their collocated bases—ones where at least one of the services had identified at least portions of those functions as having the potential for consolidation and interservicing.
Why GAO Did This Study

Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed: (1) the Department of Defense's (DOD) efforts to promote interservicing, which includes one service's reliance on another for base support and greater reliance on intraservice consolidated support; and (2) opportunities that exist for military bases to save on installation support costs.

What GAO Found

GAO noted that: (1) although DOD is aware of the potential for reducing base support costs through interservicing, it is difficult to determine the amount of the potential savings, since interservicing has never been fully or correctly implemented; (2) the services have not taken sufficient advantage of the potential savings in base support costs from interservicing; (3) the services have been considering a broad array of initiatives, including regionalizing and privatizing some base support functions; (4) consolidating these functions through advanced interservicing agreements could enhance the potential for greater efficiencies and cost savings; (5) many commanders resist interservicing because they fear losing control of their assets and service standards; and (6) an even greater impediment to interservicing on a large scale is the possibility of one base commander having to provide base support for several services.