DOD Uses Contractors for a Wide Range of Services Because of Force Size Limitations and a Lack of Military Capability and Capacity

Contractors provide the military with a wide variety of services from food,  laundry, and recreation services to maintenance of the military’s most  sophisticated weapons systems. DOD uses contractors during  deployments because limits are placed on the number of U.S. military  personnel assigned to a region, required skills may not be available in the  service, or the services want to husband scarce skills to ensure that they  are available for other contingencies. In Bosnia, for example, the Army replaced  soldiers at the gate and base perimeter with contracted security guards. DOD and the Services Have Not Identified Essential Services Provided by Contracts or Developed Plans for Their Continuation Should Contractors Not Be Available

Contractors provide DOD with a wide variety of services at deployed  locations, and while DOD uses contractors as part of the total force mix  and recognizes the need to continue essential contractor services during  crises, it has not included them in operational and strategic planning. Additionally, DOD has limited knowledge of the extent to which DOD  Instruction 3020.37 is being implemented. For example, in our review  of the logistics portion of the operations plan for the war in Iraq, which  addresses contracting, we found that there were no backup plans should  contractors become unavailable to provide essential services. Assuming that existing contractor employees will be available to perform  essential services may not always be realistic. In the case of contractor support for deployed forces, we found no DOD- wide guidance that establishes any baseline policy regarding the use of  contractors to support deployed forces or the government’s obligations to  these contractors. The Navy and the Marine Corps have also not developed much guidance  on dealing with contractors in deployed locations. The responsibility for assuring that contractors receive  adequate force protection starts with the combatant commander, extends  downward, and includes the contractor.”
The Air Force policy memorandum states, “The Air Force may provide or  make available, under terms and conditions as specified in the contract,  force protection … commensurate with those provided to DOD civilian  personnel to the extent authorized by U.S. and host nation law.”
As a result, the combatant commander does not have a uniform set of  requirements he can incorporate into his planning process but instead has  to work with requirements that vary according to the services and the  individual contracts. However,  these clauses are not mandatory and did not appear to be widely known by  contracting officers. An Army official told us that commanders sometimes do not know that  they are responsible for requesting and nominating a contracting officer’s  representative for contracts supporting their command. Appendix I: Scope and Methodology

To identify the types of services contractors provide to deployed U.S.  forces we met with officials at the Department of Defense (DOD) who  have responsibility for identifying contractor needs, issuing contracts,  managing contracts once they are executed, and utilizing contractors to  fulfill their missions. To assess DOD’s efforts to identify those contractors that provide mission  essential services and to maintain essential services if contractors are  unable to do so, we reviewed applicable DOD Inspector General reports as  well as DOD and its components’ policies, regulations, and instructions for  ensuring the continuation of essential services. To assess the adequacy of guidance and oversight mechanisms in place to  effectively manage contractors who support deployed forces we reviewed  DOD’s and its components’ policies, regulations, and instructions that  relate to the use of contractors that support deployed forces.
Why GAO Did This Study

The Department of Defense (DOD) uses contractors to provide a wide variety of services for U.S. military forces deployed overseas. We were asked to examine three related issues: (1) the extent of contractor support for deployed forces and why DOD uses contractors; (2) the extent to which such contractors are considered in DOD planning, including whether DOD has backup plans to maintain essential services to deployed forces in case contractors can no longer provide the services; and (3) the adequacy of DOD's guidance and oversight mechanisms in managing overseas contractors efficiently.

What GAO Found

While DOD and the military services cannot quantify the totality of support that contractors provide to deployed forces around the world, DOD relies on contractors to supply a wide variety of services. These services range from maintaining advanced weapon systems and setting up and operating communications networks to providing gate and perimeter security, interpreting foreign languages, and preparing meals and doing laundry for the troops. DOD uses contractor services for a number of reasons. In some areas, such as Bosnia and Kosovo, there are limits on the number of U.S. military personnel who can be deployed in the region; contract workers pick up the slack in the tasks that remain to be done. Elsewhere, the military does not have sufficient personnel with the highly technical or specialized skills needed in-place (e.g., technicians to repair sophisticated equipment or weapons). Finally, DOD uses contractors to conserve scarce skills, to ensure that they will be available for future deployments. Despite requirements established in DOD guidance (Instruction 3020.37), DOD and the services have not identified those contractors that provide mission essential services and where appropriate developed backup plans to ensure that essential contractor-provided services will continue if the contractor for any reason becomes unavailable. Service officials told us that, in the past, contractors have usually been able to fulfill their contractual obligations and, if they were unable to do so, officials could replace them with other contractor staff or military personnel. However, we found that this may not always be the case. DOD's agencywide and servicewide guidance and policies for using and overseeing contractors that support deployed U.S. forces overseas are inconsistent and sometimes incomplete. Of the four services, only the Army has developed substantial guidance for dealing with contractors. DOD's acquisition regulations do not require any specific contract in deployment locations for contract workers. Of 183 contractor employees planning to deploy with an Army division to Iraq, for example, some did not have deployment clauses in their contracts. This omission can lead to increased contract costs as well as delays in getting contractors into the field. At the sites that we visited in Bosnia, Kosovo, and the Persian Gulf, we found that general oversight of contractors appeared to be sufficient but that broader oversight issues existed. These include inadequate training for staff responsible for overseeing contractors and limited awareness by many field commanders of all the contractor activities taking place in their area of operations.