GAO Weighs In on DOD Satellite Procurement

The Department of Defense needs more information if it wants better procurement processes, said a 31-page GAO report released Friday. DOD’s “procurement of commercial satellite communications (SATCOM), or bandwidth, is fragmented and inefficient,” the report said. “DOD policy requires all of its components to procure commercial SATCOM through the Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA), but GAO found that some components are independently procuring SATCOM to meet their individual needs.” DOD concurred with the GAO recommendations that DOD “enforce current policy requiring DISA to acquire all commercial SATCOM” and “conduct a spend analysis identifying procurement inefficiencies and opportunities.” GAO directed the report to the bipartisan leaders of the Senate Armed Services Committee.