Action: By the end of 1994, the Federal Accounting Standards Advisory Board will issue a set of cost accounting standards for all federal activities. These standards will provide a method for identifying the true unit cost of all government activities.31 Some government agencies have already moved in this direction. Others have gone even further. The Defense Department is experimenting with what it calls a Unit Cost Budget. It calculates the costs of delivering a unit of service, then budgets for the desired service levels. The Defense Logistics Agency (DLA) began this experiment, hoping to ease pressures to contract out its supply depots to private companies. DLA examined the cost of receiving and delivering shipments, then attached a dollar figure to each item received and another to each item delivered. All money was then appropriated according to the number of items shipped or received. Line items disappeared, incentives grew. The more boxes a depot shipped or received, the more money that depot brought in. For the first time, DLA could calculate its true costs, compare those of various installations, and pinpoint problems. This approach, which enables managers to set productivity targets, is now spreading to other military installations.