Defense Depot Maintenance PDF Download

Pursuant to a legislative requirement, GAO reviewed the Department of Defense's (DOD) policy regarding depot-level maintenance and repair, focusing on the: (1) future role of defense depots; and (2) inconsistency of DOD policy with current statutes and congressional directives. GAO found that: (1) the DOD depot maintenance policy calls for a greater mix of public and private-sector maintenance capabilities; (2) DOD will likely rely more on private-sector depots given the uncertainty of future workload assignments; (3) the policy is vague and offers no guidance as to how DOD should downsize its depot maintenance capacity; (4) the policy ignores congressional directives calling for competition between public and private-sector entities for non-core maintenance work; (5) under this policy, DOD depots would not be allowed to compete for non-core workloads even if they offer the most cost-effective source of repair; and (6) DOD needs to develop a system that allows excess capacity reduction and vigorous public-private competition between DOD depots and commercial firms.