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Open Recommendations (108 total)

Military Personnel: DOD Needs to Improve Dental Clinic Staffing Models and Evaluate Recruitment and Retention Programs

GAO-19-50
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1 Open Recommendations
Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Department of the Air Force The Secretary of the Air Force should ensure that the Surgeon General of the Air Force Medical Service (1) collaborate with the Army Medical Command and the Navy Bureau of Medicine and Surgery to develop and implement a common set of planning standards to be used to help determine dental clinic staffing needs, and (2) incorporate these standards into the Air Force's dental corps staffing model. (Recommendation 3)
Open
On January 15, 2019, DOD sent a correspondence that indicated they are taking steps to develop and implement a common set of planning standards, which will be incorporated into the military department staffing models, to help determine dental clinic staffing needs and these changes will be complete by January 1, 2020. In a letter dated April 27, 2020, DOD stated that a tri-service working group, that was formed in January 2019, has evaluated the services' perspectives on dental manpower requirements for resourcing within military treatment facilities. Additionally, the working group evaluated commonalities and dissimilarities between the existing Air Force, Army, and Navy dental clinic staffing models. The outcome of the study are common planning standards to be integrated into the services' dental manpower models in the functional areas of Preventive Care, Routine Care and Specialty care based on 32 clinical procedures and treatment times that were evaluated as part of the commonalities garnered from separate services specific dental workload-based studies. DOD requests GAO close this recommendation. On June 8, 2021, DOD representatives from Health Affairs and the Services met with the GAO to discuss what is needed to close the recommendations. GAO requested evidence that the actions have been completed. On May 1, 2023, GAO met with DOD representatives, who stated that department-wide staffing models are being developed through a Defense Health Agency initiative. These models are planned for completion in March 2027. On May 23, 2023, DOD updated its corrective action plan, indicating that although the services did agree on the 32 clinical procedures and treatment times, they did not agree on how the data would be aggregated to determine staffing needs. DOD is considering three possibilities on how to use these data to determine staffing, with an estimated completion date of July 2023.As of January 2024, DOD has not provided updated information on the status of this recommendation. GAO will continue to monitor DOD's efforts and will update the recommendation when more information becomes available.

Military Personnel: DOD Needs to Improve Dental Clinic Staffing Models and Evaluate Recruitment and Retention Programs

GAO-19-50
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1 Open Recommendations
Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Department of the Air Force The Secretary of the Air Force should ensure that the Surgeon General of the Air Force Medical Service evaluates the effectiveness of its recruitment and retention programs for military dentists, including the need for and effectiveness of the recruitment and retention incentives currently offered. (Recommendation 6)
Open
On January 15, 2019, DOD sent a correspondence that indicated the military departments are taking steps to study the effectiveness of their recruitment and retention programs for military dentists including the need for, and effectiveness of, the recruitment and retention incentives currently offered. This study was to be complete by January 1, 2020. In a letter dated April 27, 2020, DOD stated that the Air Force has introduced Accession and Retention (Incentive) topics as a standard agenda item at the Dental Board of Directors and reviews trends, retention gaps/overages and recruitment incentives. According to officials, the data are used to validate, adjust, or eliminate various incentives. Officials also stated that the Air Force collects and utilizes survey data, exit surveys and private sector benchmarks to evaluate the effectiveness of its recruitment programs. On June 8, 2021, DOD representatives from Health Affairs and the Services met with the GAO to discuss what is needed to close the recommendations. GAO requested evidence that the actions have been completed. As of May 12, 2022, GAO had not yet received supporting documents. GAO followed up with DOD representatives on May 1, 2023. DOD representatives requested further clarification on the types of supporting documents to provide GAO, and indicated they will provide these documents. On May 23, 2023, DOD provided an updated corrective action plan indicating that actions related to this recommendation will be complete in July 2023. As of January 2024, DOD has not provided any additional information on the status of this recommendation. GAO will continue to monitor DOD's efforts and will update the recommendation's status as more information becomes available.

DOD Service Acquisition: Improved Use of Available Data Needed to Better Manage and Forecast Service Contract Requirements

GAO-16-119
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1 Open Recommendations
Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Department of the Air Force To ensure that senior leadership within the Office of the Secretary of Defense and the military departments are better positioned to make informed decisions regarding the volume and type of services that should be acquired over the future year defense program, the Secretaries of the Army, Navy, and Air Force should revise their programming guidance to collect information on how contracted services will be used to meet requirements beyond the budget year.
Open
DOD partially concurred with our recommendation, and has begun, but not completed steps to address it. In June 2022, DOD issued departmentwide guidance to begin forecasting budget needs for service acquisitions in its fiscal year 2024 budget submission. However, as of February 2024, the Air Force had not yet updated its programming guidance. Office of the Under Secretary of Defense (Comptroller) officials indicated they are coordinating with the Air Force on revising their programming guidance to address this recommendation.

Female Active-Duty Personnel: Guidance and Plans Needed for Recruitment and Retention Efforts

GAO-20-61
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1 Open Recommendations
Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Department of the Air Force The Secretary of the Air Force should develop a plan, with clearly defined goals, performance measures, and timeframes, to guide and monitor the Air Force's female active-duty servicemember recruitment and retention efforts. (Recommendation 5)
Open
DOD concurred with this recommendation. In January 2023, the Department of the Air Force provided a status update on its efforts to address this recommendation which recognized the value of having a master plan to guide and monitor female active-duty service member recruitment and retention and highlighted its efforts to develop a diversity and inclusion strategic plan, among other initiatives, as part of its ongoing efforts to pursue diversity, including women. The Department of the Air Force further stated, however, that its forthcoming Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility (DEIA) 2022-2027 Strategy entails a more holistic framework with regard to DEIA endeavors, rather than focusing specifically on females. Subsequently, in June 2023, the Department of the Air Force provided an update on its efforts, including an estimated completion date of July 2023 for the forthcoming Strategy, which remained in coordination. At that time, the Air Force also provided an estimate of September 2023 for completion of its 5-year strategic sub-plan, which would include, among other things, female recruiting and retention goals and objectives. As such, as of June 2023, the Department of the Air Force has not provided documentation sufficient to close this recommendation as implemented. In order to fully implement this recommendation, the Department of the Air Force will need to develop a plan with clearly defined goals, performance measures, and timeframes to guide and monitor its efforts to recruit and retain female active-duty service members and provide documentation, such as copies of any issued guidance documents, to support any actions the Air Force identifies as having taken. We will continue to monitor the Air Force's efforts to address this recommendation and will update the status as more information, including the forthcoming plan and sub-plan, become available.

Air Force: Enhanced Enterprise Risk Management and Internal Control Assessments Could Improve Accountability over Mission-Critical Assets

GAO-20-332
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1 Open Recommendations
Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Department of the Air Force The Secretary of the Air Force should develop policies or procedures for assessing internal control to require SAF/FM to validate (1) the number of organizational units reporting for its overall internal control assessment; (2) how control procedures were tested, what results were achieved, and how conclusions were derived from those results; and (3) whether the results used to compile the current year report are based on current fiscal year's assessments. (Recommendation 4)
Open
DOD concurred with this recommendation. In April 2023, the Air Force stated that they updated policy and procedures to require validation of assessable units and revamp assessable unit structure to simplify roles, responsibilities, and reporting. We reviewed the provided updates and found that the guidance does not discuss how Air Force should validate the number of units reporting, the testing performed, or the results obtained. We will continue to monitor efforts to address this recommendation.

Air Force: Enhanced Enterprise Risk Management and Internal Control Assessments Could Improve Accountability over Mission-Critical Assets

GAO-20-332
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2 Open Recommendations
Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Department of the Air Force The Secretary of the Air Force should develop policies or procedures for assessing internal control to require SAF/FM to assess how waivers affect the current year assessment of internal control, the determination of systemic weaknesses, and the compilation of the Air Force's overall Statement of Assurance. (Recommendation 5)
Open
DOD concurred with this recommendation. In April 2023, the Air Force stated that they updated policy to include procedures for assessing the impact of waivers on internal control assessments. We reviewed the provided updates and found that there is no documented requirement to assess waivers' impact on the Statement of Assurance. We will continue to monitor efforts to address this recommendation.
Department of the Air Force The Secretary of the Air Force should require that developers of the policy and related guidance associated with designing the procedures for conducting OMB Circular No. A-123 assessments receive recurring training and are appropriately skilled in conducting internal control assessments and are familiar with Standards for Internal Control in the Federal Government. (Recommendation 6)
Open
DOD concurred with this recommendation. In April 2023, the Air Force stated that they updated policy and procedures to require enterprise risk management and internal control policy owners to receive training on OMB Circular A-123 requirements and annual updates. They also stated they provided detailed instructions for updating OMB Circular A-123 training materials annually to reflect current guidance from the GAO, OMB, and DOD. Additionally, they stated that annual training was updated to include specific roles, responsibilities, procedures, and templates for assessing internal controls over operations, as well as consideration for compliance objectives and training was refined to target specific audiences integral to managing risks and internal control. We reviewed the provided updates and found that the guidance does not require training for the developers of policy. We will continue to monitor efforts to address this recommendation.

Unmanned Aerial Systems: Air Force Should Take Additional Steps to Improve Aircrew Staffing and Support

GAO-20-320
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1 Open Recommendations
Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Department of the Air Force The Secretary of the Air Force should ensure that a comprehensive metric (or set of metrics) is established to track the progress of its combined accession and retention efforts to obtain sufficient quantities of RPA pilots and sensor operators needed to achieve its objective of implementing the combat-to-dwell policy as planned. (Recommendation 1)
Open
DOD partially concurred with this recommendation. It stated that its ongoing efforts could be better integrated to allow for greater analysis in tracking progress toward meeting the combat-to-dwell policy. DOD also stated that it results from an ongoing study will inform the analysis for this recommendation. According to the Air Force Operations (A3) and Manpower, Personnel, and Services (A1) jointly monitor accession, production, and retention for the RPA pilots and sensor operators. The Air Force also noted that the trend analysis that is necessary to effectively analyze, monitor and manage accession and retention efforts is dependent on consistent historical data. The Air Force further stated that as the RPA career field matures, standard Air Force retention metrics used across other rated career fields such as Total Active Rated Service (TARS) and Cumulative Continuation Rate (CCR) will provide increased utility. As of July 2022, the Air Force has described some actions taken, as well as additional actions planned with an estimated completion date in September 2022. As of December 2022, the Air Force has updated its estimated completion date to November 2024. We will continue to monitor the status of the study and any other actions the department takes to address the recommendation.

Climate Resilience: Actions Needed to Ensure DOD Considers Climate Risks to Contractors as Part of Acquisition, Supply, and Risk Assessment

GAO-20-511
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1 Open Recommendations
Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Department of the Air Force The Secretary of the Air Force should implement DOD Directive 4715.21 on climate change adaptation and resilience by updating, as appropriate, relevant Department of the Air Force guidance related to acquisition and supply processes to incorporate the directive's provisions pertaining to those processes. In doing so, the Secretary of the Air Force should consider providing guidance as to how departmental officials may leverage already existing information regarding private companies. (Recommendation 4)
Open
DOD concurred with this recommendation. In its response, the department noted that the Air Force will work with the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment and the other military services to develop specific policies that address climate-related risks to DOD contractors. In January 2021, DOD officials stated that the timing to implement this recommendation remained to be determined because it was dependent on implementation of the GAO's first recommendation in this report, for DOD to update its acquisition and supply guidance to incorporate the provisions of DOD's directive on climate change adaptation. As of June 2023, DOD had not provided GAO with any further updates on the status of this recommendation. We will continue to monitor Air Force actions to implement this recommendation.

Depot Maintenance: DOD Should Improve Pandemic Plans and Publish Working Capital Fund Policy

GAO-21-103
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1 Open Recommendations
Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Department of the Air Force The Secretary of the Air Force should ensure that Air Force Material Command and the Air Force Sustainment Center formally record lessons learned in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, and use lessons learned to update depot-specific contingency plans. (Recommendation 7)
Open
The Air Force concurred with this recommendation and, per the Department's September 2023 update, is taking three actions. First, the Air Force Sustainment Center (AFSC) is revising existing Continuity of Operations Plans to incorporate higher headquarters guidance, more detailed pandemic-specific contingencies, and Air Force Material Command's 2021 telework guidance. Second, the AFSC is replacing desktop computers with laptops as quickly as cost restraints will allow to better maintain telework ready operations and help maintain readiness. Finally, the AFSC is identifying key critical positions to maintain mission essential functions during a pandemic. As of April 2024, the Air Force expects to complete these actions by September 27, 2024.
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