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Open Recommendations (790 total)

Service Members Transitioning to Civilian Life: Agencies Can Improve Warm Handovers for Additional Assistance

GAO-24-106248
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1 Open Recommendations
Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Department of Defense The Secretary of Defense should develop a written plan to analyze its available Transition Assistance Program data to identify reasons why transitioning service members who should receive a warm handover are not receiving one, and take appropriate action to collect additional warm handover data. Actions could include requiring Transition Assistance Program officials to provide an explanation when not providing a warm handover. (Recommendation 1)
Open
DOD agreed with this recommendation. The Department noted it plans to use TAP data to better understand when a warm handover is not provided by TAP officials. We will monitor their efforts to implement this recommendation.

Military Personnel: Additional Actions Needed to Address Gaps in Military Physician Specialties

GAO-18-77
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1 Open Recommendations
Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Department of Defense The President of Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences (USUHS) should track complete, accurate, and accessible information on the performance and progress of USUHS medical students. (Recommendation 7)
Open
Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences concurred with our recommendation. In April 2021, the University reported that it is in the process of redesigning its Student Information System. The University noted that modifications such as changing quarter to semester credits and developing a system to assign clinical rotations throughout the academic year across the country are being developed. In November 2023, DOD reported it estimates this recommendation will be fully implemented by September 2028. We will continue to monitor DOD's actions to implement this recommendation.

Defense Workforce: Steps Needed to Identify Acquisition Training Needs for Non-Acquisition Personnel [Reissued with revisions on Oct. 2, 2019.]

GAO-19-556
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1 Open Recommendations
Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Department of Defense The Secretary of Defense should ensure that the Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment designates an accountable official responsible for (a) developing job specialty descriptions to help identify non-acquisition personnel supporting services acquisitions; and (b) establishing a schedule to identify these personnel. (Recommendation 1)
Open
DOD concurred with this recommendation, but has not yet taken the necessary actions to implement it. In December 2022, we conducted a discussion with DOD officials, including those from the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment and Defense Acquisition University. These officials stated DOD leadership is not currently pursuing the development of job specialty descriptions to help identify non-acquisition personnel supporting services acquisitions. However, we continue to believe that DOD should designate an accountable official responsible for identifying non-acquisition personnel supporting services acquisitions and establishing a schedule to identify these personnel. Given that almost half of DOD's contract dollars are spent on services acquisitions, it is important for DOD to ensure that non-acquisition personnel who perform acquisition-related functions on service acquisitions are identified and appropriately trained. We will continue to follow up with DOD to determine if leadership returns to its plans to pursue development of the job specialty descriptions, and any associated actions.

Military Personnel: DOD Needs to Improve Funding Process for Morale, Welfare, and Recreation Programs

GAO-18-424
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1 Open Recommendations
Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Department of Defense The Secretary of Defense should ensure that the Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness (USD(P&R)), in consultation with the Secretaries of the military departments, comprehensively evaluate the funding targets for Category A and B MWR programs and document any changes made to the targets and the methodology used. (Recommendation 1)
Open
DOD concurred with our recommendation. As of April 2023, OSD officials stated that the Department is still in the process of conducting a comprehensive review of the entire DOD MWR program that will encompass a review of the MWR funding targets. OSD officials stated that OSD, in conjunction with the Military Departments have been engaged over the last three years to complete this review. OSD officials said that once this review is complete, DOD Instruction 1015.10 and DOD Instruction 1015.15 will be updated with the new policy. OSD officials estimate completing this by May 1, 2024.

Defense Health Care Reform: DOD Needs Further Analysis of the Size, Readiness, and Efficiency of the Medical Force

GAO-16-820
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1 Open Recommendations
Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Department of Defense To fully assess the size and composition of the medical force, the Secretary of Defense should direct the Assistant Secretary of Defense (Health Affairs) to conduct a new analysis of the required number of active-duty and civilian medical personnel that mitigates known limitations.
Open
DOD concurred with this recommendation. As of November 2023, DOD stated that it continues to re-assess military medical personnel requirements and estimated that work to close this recommendation would be completed by the end of September 2026. We will continue to follow-up with DOD on their efforts. I

DOD Business Systems Modernization: Governance Mechanisms for Implementing Management Controls Need to Be Improved

GAO-12-685
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1 Open Recommendations
Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Department of Defense To ensure that DOD continues to implement the full range of institutional management controls needed to address its business systems modernization high-risk area, the Secretary of Defense should ensure that the Deputy Secretary of Defense, as the department's Chief Management Officer, establish a policy that clarifies the roles, responsibilities, and relationships among the Chief Management Officer, Deputy Chief Management Officer, DOD and military department Chief Information Officers, Principal Staff Assistants, military department Chief Management Officers, and the heads of the military departments and defense agencies, associated with the development of a federated business enterprise architecture (BEA). Among other things, the policy should address the development and implementation of an overarching taxonomy and associated ontologies to help ensure that each of the respective portions of the architecture will be properly linked and aligned. In addition, the policy should address alignment and coordination of business process areas, military department and defense agency activities associated with developing and implementing each of the various components of the BEA, and relationships among these entities.
Open
As of September 2023, the Department of Defense (DOD) has not addressed this recommendation. Specifically, in September 2023, DOD stated that it no longer plans to establish a working group to codify the way forward for its business enterprise architecture (BEA) modernization. Instead, the department stated that it plans to use a formal coordination process to develop a DOD BEA framework and guidebook to describe its BEA modernization approach. DOD also stated that its framework and guidebook will describe DOD component roles and responsibilities for developing, maintaining, and using the BEA. DOD stated that it expects to complete these efforts by June 2024. We will continue to monitor the department's efforts to fully implement this recommendation.

Department of Defense: Actions Needed to Improve Management and Oversight of Dependency Determinations for Incapacitated Adult Children

GAO-20-335
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1 Open Recommendations
Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Department of Defense The Secretary of Defense should ensure that the Secretaries of the Military Departments revise military service-level policy to ensure consistency with the DOD Instruction 1315.19 definition of nondependent family members and the circumstance under which a nondependent family member should be considered for services provided by the Exceptional Family Member Program. (Recommendation 6)
Open
DOD partially concurred with this recommendation and stated that if DOD determines the current definition of a nondependent family member is no longer appropriate, it will ensure that Service-level policies will be revised to be consistent with the definition. As of September 2023, DOD stated that it is updating DOD Instruction 1315.19. DOD expects to complete these updates by May 2025. When we confirm what actions the agency has taken, we will update this information.

Southwest Border Security: Actions Are Needed to Address the Cost and Readiness Implications of Continued DOD Support to U.S. Customs and Border Protection

GAO-21-356
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1 Open Recommendations
Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Department of Defense The Secretary of Defense should ensure that the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, in collaboration with the Secretaries of the Military Departments, identifies units likely to be sourced to support CBP on the southwest border and the potential unit-level readiness impacts of assigning those units prior to the Secretary responding to DHS's RFAs, when conditions permit. (Recommendation 3)
Open
As of July 2023, DOD hasn't taken any action to address the recommendation. DOD stated that the Joint Staff's existing evaluation processes enable the Secretary to make an informed decision as to whether DOD should support DHS's request. As we note in our report, officials told us this information about unit readiness was not provided to the Secretary at the time of the decision to provide support, which may have led DOD to agree to provide capabilities that were later not provided due to readiness concerns or resulted in the department incurring unforeseen readiness costs. We believe this recommendation is still relevant and will continue to monitor the status, especially given that DOD continues to support DHS at the southwest border and has agreed to do so through at least fiscal year 2024.

Military Vehicles: Army and Marine Corps Should Take Additional Actions to Mitigate and Prevent Training Accidents

GAO-21-361
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1 Open Recommendations
Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Department of Defense The Secretary of the Army, in consultation with the Chief of Staff of the Army, and the Secretary of the Navy, in consultation with the Commandant of the Marine Corps, should establish a formal collaboration forum among Army and Marine Corps range officials that allows them to share methods for identifying and communicating hazards to units with each other on a regular basis. (Recommendation 9)
Open
The Department of Defense concurred with this recommendation. In a corrective action plan provided to us in February 2024, DOD stated that, between June 2022 and March 2023 they held three Range Safety Working Group meetings that included Army and Marine Corps officials sharing strategies to resolve range safety hazards. They also noted that they intend to have another such meeting in the near future to ensure that Army and Marine Corps officials can both attend simultaneously. By providing documentation of formal coordination forums where Army and Marine Corps officials discussed identifying and communicating hazards to units as part of the regularly occurring Range Safety Working Group meetings, the Army and Marine Corps will show they are meeting the intent of GAO's recommendation from July 2021, and allow the services to share best practices with each other and improve range safety for units that use ranges to train.

Missile Defense: Recent Acquisition Policy Changes Balance Risk and Flexibility, but Actions Needed to Refine Requirements Process

GAO-22-563
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1 Open Recommendations
Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Department of Defense The Secretary of Defense should include in the next update to DOD Directive 5134.09 a requirement for MDA to perform analyses of alternatives for all major MDS programs using warfighter-validated initial requirements documents. (Recommendation 2)
Open
DOD did not concur with our recommendation but stated that MDA would propose a change to DOD Directive 5134.09 (referred to as the MDA Charter) that would effectively implement our recommendation. DOD stated that MDA would propose the change as part of a broader update to the MDA Charter required by DOD Directive-Type Memorandum (DTM) 20-002. The deadline for updating the MDA Charter was originally August 21, 2020, but the deadline was subsequently extended to 2024. An official from the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment told us in April 2023 that efforts within DOD to update the MDA charter were ongoing and should be completed in 2024. We will continue to monitor the status of DOD's efforts to update the MDA Charter and whether the update includes provisions that would meet the intent of our recommendation.
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