The System Used by the Defense Commissary Agency to Pay Vendors' Invoices

In May 1990, the Deputy Secretary of Defense issued a memorandum to establish the Defense Commissary Agency (DeCA) and directed DeCA to consolidate the military commissary systems by October 1, 1991. To establish its automated information systems, DeCA established a three-part plan. First, DeCA adapted certain Military Services commissary systems for its consolidated operations. Second, DeCA planned to replace those adapted systems with the DeCA Interim Business System (DIBS), a modified Army system. Third, concurrent with the DIBS development, DeCA began planning a competitive acquisition of a Defense commissary information system to replace the DIBS. The overall audit objective was to evaluate the timeliness of the system that DeCA used to pay vendors invoices. We also evaluated DeCA's utilization of personnel in its automated data processing (ADP) operations, as well as internal controls over bill-paying functions and personnel utilization.