In part to improve the availability of information on and management of DOD’s acquisition of services, in fiscal year 2002 Congress enacted section 2330a of title 10 of the U.S. Code, which required the Secretary of Defense to establish a data collection system to provide management information on each purchase of services by a military department or defense agency. The information to be collected includes, among other things, the services purchased, the total dollar amount of the purchase, the form of contracting action used to make the purchase, and the extent of competition provided in making the purchase. The inventory is to include a number of the function and missions performed by the contractor; the contracting organization, the component of DOD administering the contract, and the organization whose requirements are being met through contractor performance of the function; the funding source for the contract by appropriation and operating agency; the fiscal year the activity first appeared on an inventory; the number of contractor employees (expressed as FTEs) for direct labor, using direct labor hours and associated cost data collected from contractors; a determination of whether the contract pursuant to which the activity is performed is a personal services contract, a summary of the information required by section 2330a(a) of title 10 of the U.S. Code. As implemented by DOD, components are to compile annual inventories of activities performed on their behalf by contractors and submit them to AT&L, which is to formally submit a consolidated DOD inventory to Congress no later than June 30. Since this provision was implemented DOD-wide, the primary source used by DOD components, with the exception of the Army, to compile their inventories has been FPDS-NG. The Army developed its Contractor Manpower Reporting Application (CMRA) in 2005 to collect information on labor-hour expenditures by function, funding source, and mission supported on contracted efforts, and has used CMRA as the basis for its inventory. CMRA captures data directly reported by contractors on services performed at the contract line item level, including information on the direct labor dollars, direct labor hours, total invoiced dollars, the functions and mission performed, and the organizational unit on whose behalf the services are being performed. In instances where contractors are providing different services under the same order, or are providing services at multiple locations, contractors can enter additional records in CMRA to capture information associated with each type of service or location. It also allows for the identification of services provided under contracts for goods. Within 30 days after it is submitted to Congress, the inventory is to be made public. Within 90 days of the date on which the inventory is submitted to Congress, the Secretaries of the military department and heads of the defense agencies responsible for activities in the inventory are to complete a review of the contracts and activities for which they are responsible and ensure that any personal services contracts in the inventory were properly entered into and performed appropriately; that the activities in the inventory do not include inherently governmental functions; that to the maximum extent practicable, the activities on the list do not include any functions closely associated with inherently governmental functions; and that activities that should be considered for conversion to DOD civilian performance have been identified. In January 2011, Congress amended section 2330a(c) of title 10 of the U.S. Code to specify that P&R, AT&L, and Comptroller are responsible for Section 2330a(c) was also issuing guidance for compiling the inventory. amended to state that DOD is to use direct labor hours and associated cost data collected from contractors as the basis for the number of contactor FTEs identified in the inventory, though it provided that DOD may use estimates where such data are not available and cannot reasonably be made available in a timely manner. Congress provided further direction on the collection of FTE information for contractor employees in the Department of Defense and Full-Year Continuing Appropriations Act, 2011 by providing not less than $2 million to both the Navy and Air Force to leverage the Army’s CMRA to document the number of full-time contractor employees, or their equivalent in the inventory. The services and the directors of the defense agencies in coordination with P&R were to report to the Congressional defense committees within 60 days of enactment of that act on their plans for documenting the number of full-time contractor employees or their equivalent. In December 2011, section 936 of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2012 amended section 2330a of title 10 of the U.S. Code to clarify the types of contracted services to be inventoried, including contracts for goods to the extent services are a significant component of performance, as identified in a separate line item of a contract. This section also directed the secretary of the military department or head of the defense agency responsible for activities in the inventory to develop a plan, including an enforcement mechanism and approval process, to provide for the use of the inventory to make determinations regarding the most appropriate mix of military, civilian, and contractor personnel to perform its mission; ensure that the inventory is used to inform strategic workforce provide for appropriate consideration of the conversion of certain planning; facilitate the use of the inventory for budgetary purposes; and activities, to include those closely associated with inherently governmental functions, critical functions, and acquisition workforce functions, to performance by government employees. Section 2463 of title 10 of the U.S. Code requires the Secretary of Defense to make use of the inventory of contracted services to identify certain functions performed by contractors, to include closely associated with inherently governmental functions, critical functions and acquisition workforce functions, and ensure that special consideration is given to converting those functions to civilian performance. Further, the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2010 provided for a new section 115b in title 10 of the U.S. Code that requires DOD to annually submit to the defense committees a strategic workforce plan to shape and improve the civilian workforce. Among other requirements, the plan is to include an assessment of the appropriate mix of military, civilian, and contractor personnel capabilities. P&R is responsible for developing and implementing the strategic plan in consultation with AT&L. The act also added section 235 to title 10 of the U.S. Code, which requires that the Secretary of Defense include (in the budget justification materials submitted to Congress) information that clearly and separately identifies both the amount requested for the procurement of contract services for each DOD component, installation, or activity and the number of contractor employee full-time equivalents projected and justified for each DOD component, installation, or activity based on the inventory of contracts for services and associated reviews. Collectively, these statutory requirements mandate the use of the inventory and the associated review process to enhance the ability of DOD to identify and track the services provided by contractors, achieve accountability for the contractor sector of its total workforce, help identify functions for possible conversion from contractor performance to DOD civilian performance, support the development of DOD’s annual strategic workforce plan, and project and justify the number of contractor FTEs included in its annual budget justification materials. Figure 1 illustrates the relationship among the related statutory requirements. Over the past year and a half, DOD has taken its first steps to implement a November 2011 plan to collect contractor manpower data from contractors. These steps included directing components to start collecting direct labor hours and associated costs from contractors and initiating efforts to develop and implement a department-wide data collection system based on the Army’s CMRA to collect and store inventory data, including contractor manpower data. AT&L and P&R officials estimate that the new system will be available in fiscal year 2014, with DOD components reporting on most of their contracted services by fiscal year 2016. DOD, however, is still working on key decisions related to security, funding, and other technological issues and has not developed an implementation plan with specific time frames or milestones to help ensure DOD remains on track to develop its planned data collection system. For the fiscal year 2011 inventory, DOD components generally used the same compilation processes used in the previous year. As such, with the exception of the Army, which already collects contractor manpower data and other key information using its CMRA data collection system, the remaining components obtained most of their inventory information from FPDS-NG, a system that does not collect contractor FTE information and has other limitations, which limit its utility for purposes of compiling a complete and accurate inventory. DOD has taken steps to meet legislative requirements to develop a data collection system that provides management insight on contracted services and collects the required data points for each contracted service, including information on the number of contractor FTEs. In April 2011, Congress passed the Department of Defense and Full-Year Continuing Appropriations Act, 2011, which among other things, required the secretaries of the military departments and the directors of the defense agencies, in coordination with P&R, to submit plans for documenting the number of contractor FTEs. In response, in November 2011 DOD issued a plan to collect contractor manpower data and document contractor FTEs, and provided for short-term and long-term actions intended to meet the requirements of 10 U.S.C. § 2330a. DOD stated that it was committed to assisting components as they implement their plans, especially those currently without reporting processes or infrastructure in place, by leveraging the Army’s CMRA system, processes, best practices, and tools to the maximum extent possible. Part of the long-term plan is to develop a comprehensive instruction for components to use on the development, review, and use of the inventories and for the Office of the Deputy Chief Management Officer, P&R, and other stakeholders to form a working group to develop and implement a common data system to collect and house the information required for the inventory, including contractor manpower data. DOD noted in its plan that it expects the data system to be operational and DOD components to be reporting on most of their service contracts by fiscal year 2016.