A recent GAO report and subsequent Congressional hearing found that the Defense Contract Audit Agency (DCAA) is not abiding by government auditing standards. Sen. Joe Lieberman said that "DCAA still seems driven by a culture that emphasizes speed and production of audits over the quality of results."

The problem may extend back to a GAO report last year that found "abusive" auditing practices at several DCAA locations. Managers were praised for getting through a lot of audits quickly, not necessarily caring about results or audit content. This time around, GAO studied a sample of 69 DCAA audits--only 4 met basic government auditing standards.

"This work does not provide reasonable assurance that contractors have adequate controls in place to identify and correct overpayments and billing errors," the report said. DCAA Director April Stephenson blamed the policies of the 1990s which geared DCAA to be a streamlined audit organization, ready to handle a large number of fixed-price contracts. Unfortunately, she said, the high number of cost-type contracts has inhibited DCAA's ability to effectively churn out good audits.

It's another black eye for an organization that has been under fire in recent months for failure to coordinate with DCMA, and a recent history of auditing malfeasance. Lawmakers promised to stay on top of DCAA and ensure the organization starts to change its ways.