The Navy recently awarded a $9.4 billion contract to begin construction work on what has for years been its biggest modernization priority: A project to build a new class of at least a dozen nuclear-armed ballistic missile submarines that’s expected to cost $110 billion once all is said and done.
The contract for the new Columbia class went to General Dynamics Electric Boat, one of only two U.S. firms capable of building nuclear-powered vessels. It is the first class of ballistic missile subs the Navy has begun since the 1970s, and will eventually replace the current fleet of Ohio class boats when that fleet reaches its retirement age decades from now.
Senior Navy leaders have long said that the program — which they see as vital, since submarines are the most “survivable” part of the military’s nuclear weapons arsenal — will be placed at the front of the line for funding and construction capacity for years to come. That makes it especially important to hold Columbia’s costs in check so they don’t swallow the rest of DoD’s maritime acquisition budget.
James Geurts, the assistant secretary of the Navy for research, development and acquisition said there’s every reason to think the Navy can do that.
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The VA in June 2014 hired Florida-based BCI Construction for $8.7 million to install a generator system and accompanying structure to house the unit at the Jack C. Montgomery VA Medical Center in Muskogee, Oklahoma. According to the inspector general, the VA did not submit an excavation plan for approval before beginning work. Subsequently, a hillside and parking lot collapsed, and the damage will cost $17.5 million to fix.
No, this isn’t a story about deploying a fancy new weapon, or unveiling a new aircraft, or launching a military operation of any kind: The Department of Defense is preparing for its first-ever audit.
The lack of formal accountability has left unanswered basic questions about how the military spends taxpayer money, like the precise number of employees and contractors its various branches have hired. Cost overruns have become legendary, none more so than the F-35 fighter-jet program that has drawn the ire of President Trump. And partial reports suggest that the department has misspent or not accounted for anywhere from 
The agency’s inspector general also found 18F chose not to listen to advice of GSA’s chief financial officer and the commissioner of the Federal Acquisition Service about following the law to pay back its initial funding, and did so with a smug attitude that many in and out of government have said is emblematic of the digital services movement across government.
