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GAO-11-364R 1 (2011-03-03)

handle is hein.gao/gaobaanwu0001 and id is 1 raw text is: A AGA 0 Accountabity I Integrity * Reliability United States Government Accountability Office Washington, DC 20548 March 3, 2011 The Honorable Charles Bolden Administrator National Aeronautics and Space Administration 300 E Street, SW Washington, DC 20024-3210 Subject: Additional Cost Transparency and Design Criteria Needed for National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Projects Dear Administrator Bolden: Today, GAO published its third annual assessment of selected large-scale NASA projects.1 During this assessment we identified several issues that merit your management attention. The federal government faces real fiscal limitations and will have to make difficult choices about upcoming priorities. This reality makes it more important than ever that NASA manage its programs and projects as efficiently and effectively as possible and within a budget that over recent years has remained relatively constant. It will also require that NASA make tough decisions about which projects to fund among core missions in science, aeronautics, and human space flight and exploration. Our work over the past three years has shown that NASA's maj or projects are frequently approved without evidence of a sound business case- ensuring a match between requirements and resources-and, therefore, cost more and take longer to develop than planned. Our March 2011 assessment found that 13 NASA projects that established baselines prior to fiscal year 2009 had experienced an average cost growth of almost 55 percent, with a combined increase in development costs of almost $2.5 billion from their baselines established at their Confirmation Review.2 While NASA has taken steps over recent years to help improve its acquisition management through several initiatives aimed at improving cost estimating and management oversight, the overall outcomes of these efforts will take time to become apparent. Based on the findings of our past three assessments, we are recommending that NASA (1) provide increased transparency into project costs to the Congress to conduct oversight and ensure earlier accountability and (2) develop a common set of measurable and proven criteria to assess the design stability of projects before proceeding into later phases of development. 1GAO, NASA: Assessments of Selected Large-Scale Projects, GAO-11-239SP (Washington, D.C.: Mar. 3, 2011). 2 The confirmation review is the point at which cost and schedule baselines are established and approved for the project. Project progress is measured against these baselines. GAO- 11-364R

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