**GAO-07-58**                      Published: Jan 17, 2007. Publicly Released: Feb 16, 2007.                  

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## Highlights

Cost-plus-award-fee contracts accounted for almost half of the National Aeronautic and Space Administration's (NASA) obligated contract dollars for fiscal years 2002-2004. Since 1990, we have identified NASA's contract management as a high-risk area--in part because of a lack of emphasis on end results. Congress asked us to examine (1) the extent NASA's guidance on award fees addresses problems previously identified with the use of award-fee contracts and (2) whether NASA follows its guidance in using award fees to achieve desired outcomes. We reviewed the top 10 dollar value award-fee contracts active from fiscal years 2002 through 2004.

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## Topics

Government Operations

Evaluation criteriaContract administrationContract performanceContractor paymentsProgram evaluationCost controlStandards evaluationCost plus award fee contractsPerformance managementEngineering