Congress asked the General Accounting Office (GAO) to establish a panel of experts to study and make recommendations regarding the Cost Accounting Standards (CAS) Board and the CAS system against the background of the far-reaching procurement reforms of recent years. This group, the CAS Board Review Panel, believes that there is a continuing need for the CAS and the CAS Board. Cost- based contracts continue to represent the majority of all federal contracting dollars and the original purposes of the CAS--principally the need for uniformity and consistency to protect the government from certain risks inherent in cost-based contracts and to improve communications between the government and contractors with regard to those contracts--remain.