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Open Recommendations (788 total)

Other Transaction Agreements: DOD Can Improve Planning for Consortia Awards

GAO-22-105357
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1 Open Recommendations
Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Department of Defense Until a systematic approach to track obligations each consortium has received from consortia-based other transaction agreements is implemented, the Secretary of Defense should direct the Director of Defense Pricing and Contracting to provide information to the public and congressional decision makers on the dollars awarded to consortia using consortia-based other transaction agreements, such as by updating Department of Defense guidance to require contracting personnel to manually report this information. (Recommendation 2)
Open – Partially Addressed
DOD agreed with this recommendation. DOD and the General Services Administration have taken some actions to track the obligated dollars each consortium has received from consortia-based other transaction agreements. However, DOD did not provide this level of detail in its fiscal year 2022 report to Congress, which included obligations awarded to all consortia rather than the amount each consortium has received from consortia-based other transaction agreements.

Defense Infrastructure: DOD Needs Clearer Guidance on Notifying Congress of Privately Financed Construction Projects [Reissued on January 31, 2017]

GAO-17-76
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1 Open Recommendations
Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Department of Defense In order to ensure that Congress receives all desired information on all gifts of major construction in a timely manner, the Secretary of Defense--in collaboration with any other relevant DOD stakeholders--should identify the lead organization(s) within DOD that will be responsible for developing DOD-wide policy for reporting gifts of major construction that are not reported through the process outlined in DOD Instruction 7700.18, as appropriate.
Open
DOD did not concur with this recommendation, stating that there was already an official, the Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology, and Logistics, responsible for developing policies related to gifts of real property, including major construction. However, DOD has not formally assigned responsibility to the Under Secretary (now the Under Secretary for Acquisition and Sustainment) for developing DOD-wide policy on reporting gifts of major construction not covered by the process outlined in DOD Instruction 7700.18. As of March 2024, DOD had taken no action on the recommendation, and officials stated that reporting of gifts is not mandated by law, so DOD has opted not to report gifts of construction that would not normally be funded with appropriated funds unless doing so becomes mandated by law. To implement this recommendation, DOD would need to assign responsibility for developing DOD-wide policy on reporting gifts of major construction to Congress that are not reported through the process outlined in DOD Instruction 7700.18.

Military Personnel: Actions Needed to Better Position the Navy and the Marine Corps to Support Expanding Unmanned Systems Operations

GAO-18-162
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1 Open Recommendations
Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Department of Defense The Chief of Naval Operations should, after clarifying workforce planning policies, apply the revised policies to evaluate the use of alternative workforces (including federal civilian employees and private sector contractors) for future unmanned system operators. (Recommendation 2)
Open
DOD concurred with this recommendation. As of August 2022, the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness was working with the Navy to address Recommendation 1 before implementing this recommendation. At that time, DOD estimated that it would complete the recommendation by June 2023. However, as of August 2023, a DOD official stated that there was no updated information to provide on the recommendation status.

Military Personnel: Collecting Additional Data Could Enhance Pilot Retention Efforts

GAO-18-439
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1 Open Recommendations
Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Department of Defense The Secretary of Defense should ensure that the Secretary of the Air Force analyzes staffing levels by officer grade for each pilot community as part of its annual business case for aviation retention bonus payments to help ensure that aviation retention bonuses are targeted to the appropriate pilot communities. (Recommendation 4)
Open
DOD concurred with this recommendation. In April 2020, DOD officials stated that the Air Force planned to make changes to its upcoming business case analysis to break out control grade from field grade officers to better delineate the staffing challenges it faces as well as the targeted effect of aviation bonus offerings. In August 2022, an Air Force official stated that the Air Force was in the process of redesigning the model on which its business case analysis is based and anticipated that the model will take into account attrition, career length, Air Force distribution, retention, and talent distribution. In May 2023, the Air Force stated that it has begun to analyze staffing levels by officer grade to help determine the health of the career field and appropriate pilot production levels. In April 2024, the Air Force estimated completion of this recommendation by June 2024. In order to fully implement this recommendation, the Air Force would need to provide documentation of the new model and its annual business case for aviation retention bonus payments demonstrating an analysis of staffing levels by officer grade for each pilot community.

Domestic Abuse: Actions Needed to Enhance DOD's Prevention, Response, and Oversight

GAO-21-289
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1 Open Recommendations
Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Department of Defense The Secretary of Defense should ensure the Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness clarifies guidance for submitting data on the number and types of domestic abuse allegations. (Recommendation 1)
Open
DOD concurred with this recommendation, and in August 2021, DOD officials stated that the department will review its guidance and determine if revisions are needed to provide clarifying guidance for the submission of data on the number and types of domestic abuse allegations. In July 2022, the officials estimated these actions will be completed by September 2022. In April 2024, DOD officials estimated that these actions will be completed in September 2024. We will update the status of this recommendation once we confirm what actions DOD has taken.

Nuclear Enterprise: DOD and NNSA Could Further Enhance How They Manage Risk and Prioritize Efforts

GAO-22-104061
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1 Open Recommendations
Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Department of Defense The Secretary of Defense, in coordination with the NNSA Administrator, should establish a joint risk management process to periodically identify, analyze, and respond to risks that affect the U.S. nuclear enterprise (including the nuclear weapons stockpile, delivery platforms, and nuclear command and control) and report, internally and externally to relevant stakeholders, those risks and any associated mitigation efforts. (Recommendation 1)
Open
In July 2022, DOD officials stated that they are working to address this recommendation and estimated that implementation would be complete in June 2023. According to officials, DOD uses number of existing risk management and mitigation processes (such as service and acquisition risk management processes, the Nuclear Weapons Council, and other senior-leadership forums). Moving forward, DOD will continue to execute and improve upon these processes and evaluate new processes, as necessary, to enable both internal DOD and interagency risk mitigation. Additionally, DOD will work internally with stakeholders to refine DOD's approach to periodically identify, analyze, and respond to risks that affect the U.S. nuclear enterprise. As of November 2023, DOD officials told GAO they are working to implement this recommendation.

Defense Real Property: Developing Department-Wide Instructions and Adequate Internal Controls Should Help DOD Improve Recording of Transferred Assets

GAO-22-104652
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1 Open Recommendations
Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Department of Defense The Under Secretary of Defense (Comptroller) should, as part of DOD's ongoing efforts to develop and implement a DOD-wide strategy to remediate real property internal control issues, develop appropriate DOD-wide instructions detailing actionable steps for completing the remaining work to fully implement the March 2019 updated policy on real property financial reporting responsibilities, including completing all reconciliation steps as appropriate and obtaining and maintaining sufficient supporting documentation. (Recommendation 1)
Open
DOD concurred with this recommendation in its response to our report. In its most recent status update, DOD stated that the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense (Comptroller) began in August 2022 developing and will implement DOD-level provisional guidance to support remediation of real property internal control issues for existence and completeness, reconciliations for intra-DOD real property asset transfers, and the sufficiency of supporting documentation with an estimated completion by July 2024.

Women in Special Operations: Improvements to Policy, Data, and Assessments Needed to Better Understand and Address Career Barriers

GAO-23-105168
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1 Open Recommendations
Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Department of Defense The Secretary of Defense should ensure that the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Special Operations and Low-Intensity Conflict, in coordination with the Commander, U.S. Special Operations Command; the Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness; and the Secretaries of the military departments, establishes a collaborative process for the timely sharing of accurate and complete data on SOCOM personnel, including data on incidents of gender discrimination, sexual harassment, and sexual assault. (Recommendation 4)
Open
DOD concurred with this recommendation. As of January 2024, the department has not provided a status update on its efforts to address this recommendation. To fully implement this recommendation, DOD should establish a collaborative process for the timely sharing of accurate and complete data on SOCOM personnel, including data on incidents of gender discrimination, sexual harassment, and sexual assault. Once we confirm what actions the agency has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.

Personnel Vetting: DOD Should Improve Management and Operation of Its Background Investigation Working Capital Fund

GAO-23-105812
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1 Open Recommendations
Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Department of Defense The Secretary of Defense should ensure that the Director of the DCSA establishes performance targets for each of DCSA's performance measures. (Recommendation 5)
Open
DOD concurred with this recommendation. When we confirm what actions the agency has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.

F-35 Joint Strike Fighter: More Actions Needed to Explain Cost Growth and Support Engine Modernization Decision

GAO-23-106047
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1 Open Recommendations
Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Department of Defense The Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment should ensure the F-35 program reports the full life-cycle costs, for each engine and thermal management modernization option, including integration and any necessary related aircraft upgrade costs, to inform the military services' modernization decisions. (Recommendation 4)
Open
DOD concurred with this recommendation. When we confirm what actions the agency has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.
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