Report
Measuring Changes in Service Costs to Meet the Requirements of the 2002 National Defense Authorization Act
Jan 1, 2004
How Can the Air Force Measure Success?
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Purchased services represent the largest category of U.S. government contract expenditures. In 2002, Congress called for the Department of Defense (DoD) to change its contracting and management practices to reduce the cost of buying services over the next decade. The Air Force purchases a variety of services—ranging from groundskeeping to engineering studies—to support its personnel, facilities, and weapons. RAND Project AIR FORCE (PAF) developed a method to measure the Air Force's progress in meeting these cost-reduction goals. Researchers found that the Air Force needs to improve its data collection and processing to systematically track and analyze the effects that changes in purchasing practices have on costs. The following steps are most important.
PAF researchers are also exploring whether the data currently collected by DoD adequately represent the Air Force's service expenditures. Together these research efforts will allow the Air Force to gauge its success in reducing the cost of purchased services in the coming years.
This research brief describes work done for RAND Project AIR FORCE.
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