FEDERAL AIRCRAFT: INACCURATE COST DATA AND WEAKNESSES IN FLEET MANAGEMENT PLANNING HAMPER COST EFFECTIVE OPERATIONS

Federal civilian agencies own and operate a fleet of aging aircraft, many of which may soon need to be replaced. Agencies manage their fleets with help from guidance and policies issued by the General Services Administration (GSA) and the Office of Management and Budget (OMB). Numerous audit reports have disclosed that agencies lacked accurate cost data and had acquired aircraft without adequate justification. The Government Accountability Office (GAO) reviewed (1) the composition and costs of the federal aircraft fleet; (2) the systems and controls agencies used to ensure that they effectively and efficiently acquire and manage their aircraft fleets; and (3) the operations, maintenance, safety standards, and safety records for federal aircraft. GAO could not accurately determine the number of government-owned aircraft and total costs of federal aircraft program operations, because it found that GSA's database was unreliable. Although the database showed federal agencies owned nearly 1,400 aircraft and that agencies reported spending over $700 million to operate and maintain federally-owned and contracted aircraft in fiscal year 2002, GAO found it understated the cost of federal aircraft operations by at least $568 million over the past 3 years. This is because some agencies did not report all the required information. GAO also found there was no requirement for the agencies to report other aircraft costs such as depreciation. The systems and controls GAO reviewed provide limited assurance that agencies are cost effectively acquiring and managing their aircraft fleets. All seven aircraft programs GAO examined failed to implement some key principles of fleet management planning, as outlined in GSA, OMB, and other federal guidance. GAO found that programs did not consistently prepare long-term fleet management plans to identify fleet requirements and aircraft that best meet those requirements. GAO also found that these programs rarely prepared OMB Circular A-76 studies to assess whether the private sector could provide aviation services at a lower cost, and often did not perform cost benefit analyses before acquiring aircraft. Finally, GAO found that programs did not use a full range of aviation metrics to measure and assess the effectiveness of their aircraft operations and rarely prepared OMB Circular A-126 studies to periodically assess the continuing need for their aircraft operations. GAO also found that OMB provides limited oversight over compliance with Circulars A-76 and A-126, leaving it up to each program to determine whether to complete the reviews. Although exempt from many federal safety requirements, federal aircraft programs GAO reviewed developed their own operations, maintenance, and safety standards to help ensure safe operations. However, the use of oversight to evaluate the safety of the programs and help identify potential issues before they become safety problems varied greatly.

• Record URL:
  • http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d04645.pdf
• 
• Corporate Authors:

  U.S. General Accounting Office

  441 G Street, NW
  Washington, DC  United States  20548
• Publication Date: 2004-6

Language

• English

Media Info

• Pagination: 117 p.

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Aging (Materials); Aircraft; Aviation safety; Benefit cost analysis; Cost effectiveness; Costs; Data quality; Databases; Depreciation; Federal government; Fleet management; Maintenance; Operations; Oversight; Planning; Reliability; Standards
• Identifier Terms: U.S. General Services Administration; U.S. Office of Management and Budget
• Subject Areas: Administration and Management; Aviation; Finance; Maintenance and Preservation; Planning and Forecasting; Vehicles and Equipment;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00976349
• Record Type: Publication
• Report/Paper Numbers: GAO-04-645
• Files: TRIS
• Created Date: Jul 26 2004 12:00AM