The departments of Defense, Veterans Affairs, Health and Human Services, Treasury and Homeland Security use service level agreements to procure cloud computing services from the private sector, according to a Government Accountability Office report.
GAO said Thursday it reviewed a total of 21 cloud SLAs from those five departments in order to determine the extent to which they have incorporated 10 key contract management practices.
Seven of the contracts reviewed include all key practices, 13 contracts contain five to nine practices and one contract does not incorporate any of those practices.
“Unless agencies fully implement SLA key practices into their SLAs, they may not be able to adequately measure the performance of the services, and, therefore, may not be able to effectively hold the contractors accountable when performance falls short,” GAO noted.
The agency recommended that the Office of Management and Budget add the 10 key practices to its future guidance for federal agencies.