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Open Recommendations (790 total)

F-35 Aircraft Sustainment: DOD Needs to Address Substantial Supply Chain Challenges

GAO-19-321
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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, together with the Department of Defense Comptroller, the Secretaries of the Air Force and Navy, and the F-35 Program Executive Officer, completes and formalizes a methodology for the U.S. services to use in recording on their financial statements the funds spent on F-35 parts within the global spares pool. (Recommendation 7)
Open
DOD concurred with this recommendation. As of December 2021, DOD stated that the Comptroller is currently developing a white paper to formalize the methodology for the US Services to use in recording on their financial statement the funds spent on F-35 parts within the global spares pool. In parallel to the development of the white paper, in order to ensure that the Department is prepared to implement the methodology once it is complete, DOD said that the spares pool data is being incorporated into an Accountable Property System of Record, and the JPO is working to establish accurate cost values for the global spares pool. However, as of February 2022, there were still a number of issues for DOD to address in order to establish and implement such a methodology, including establishing an accurate inventory of parts on bases around the world, determining how continuing transactions will be tracked, and agreeing with the services on who will be responsible for tracking and reporting assets. We will continue to monitor DOD's progress in this area.

Military Courts: DOD Should Assess the Tradeoffs Associated With Expanding Public Access to and Information About Terrorism Trials

GAO-19-283
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1 Open Recommendations
Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Department of Defense The Secretary of Defense should ensure that the Deputy Secretary of Defense assesses the tradeoffs of potential options for expanding public access to military commissions' proceedings by identifying and analyzing associated risks, and, as appropriate, developing a strategy to implement any viable options.
Open
DOD concurred with this recommendation and has taken some steps to address the recommendation, such as indicating they plan to establish victim and family member viewing sites in Florida and California, as well as the addition of one public viewing site and one media viewing site in the New York area. However, DOD has not provided a strategy showing how these efforts will be accomplished. As of April 2022, DOD provided a response letter with additional details regarding their considerations of the nine options for expanding public access included in the report, but did not provide details regarding the identification and analysis of associated risks for all options, which is needed to address the recommendation. In June and October 2023, we contacted DOD to determine if any additional actions have been taken on our recommendation. No additional actions were identified. We will continue to monitor DOD's efforts to address this recommendation and will update the status as more information becomes available.

Unmanned Aerial Systems: Actions Needed to Improve DOD Pilot Training

GAO-15-461
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1 Open Recommendations
Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Department of Defense To increase opportunities to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of UAS pilot training across DOD, the Secretary of Defense should direct the Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness to address how the services should coordinate with one another in the strategy on UAS pilot training that the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness is current drafting.
Open
DOD concurred with this recommendation and stated the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness was in the process of revising its draft "Department of Defense Training Strategy for Unmanned Aircraft Systems(UAS)" to address inter-service coordination to enable the department to train more efficiently and effectively as a whole. In October 2016, the Director stated that RAND had completed the draft strategy and that the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense (Readiness) had begun revising the strategy. An Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense (Readiness) official working on the revisions stated that the strategy would address our recommendation and coordination among the services. However, as of October 2016, the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense (Readiness) had not yet issued the department-wide UAS training strategy. In May 2018, the Director Military Training and Ranges in the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense (Readiness)/Force Training engaged a team to review the 2016 draft strategy to recommend a way forward. According to that official, the review was nearing completion and he anticipated presenting their recommendation to the current Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Force Education & Training in late July 2018. In September 2018 this official said that developing a new UAS strategy is not planned and he reiterated again in August 2019 that a UAS training strategy has not been issued. In July 2022, officials from the Office of Personnel and Readiness and the services told us that the department had taken no new actions to implement this recommendation. We continue to believe this recommendation should be implemented. In November 2023, DOD officials told us that they would provide documentation later in the month indicating that DOD had taken action consistent with our recommendation.

Sexual Harassment and Assault: Guidance Needed to Ensure Consistent Tracking, Response, and Training for DOD Civilians

GAO-21-113
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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, in collaboration with the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Civilian Personnel Policy and the Director of the Sexual Assault Prevention and Response Office, issues guidance for the military departments to comprehensively track information about reported work-related sexual assaults involving DOD federal civilian employee victims in the continental United States, regardless of eligibility for DOD-provided sexual assault support services, including the status and affiliation of the victim and alleged offender and actions taken by DOD in response, such as any referrals or support services provided. (Recommendation 4)
Open
DOD concurred with this recommendation. In June 2021, DOD stated that the department plans to update DOD Instruction 1438.06 to require that DOD components, to include the military departments, track information about work-related sexual assaults involving DOD federal civilian employee victims in the continental United States, regardless of eligibility for DOD-provided support services, to include the status of the victim, alleged offender, and actions taken by DOD in response. DOD estimated completion of this effort by June 30, 2022. As of March 2023, DOD had not provided additional updates. DOD will need to provide documentation of the updated guidance, once revised, to fully implement this recommendation. We will continue to monitor DOD's efforts to implement this recommendation.

Improvised Threats: Warfighter Support Maintained, but Clearer Responsibilities and Improved Information Sharing Needed

GAO-18-509
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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 clarifies JIDO's authorities for countering improvised threats, including the degree to which JIDO is to focus (lead, advocate, and coordinate) departmental efforts in key areas such as research and rapid fielding. (Recommendation 2)
Open
DOD agreed with this recommendation. As of May 2022, DOD indicated that it was in the process of updating guidance that would clarify the degree to which JIDO is to focus (lead, advocate, and coordinate) departmental efforts in key areas such as research and rapid fielding.

Artificial Intelligence: DOD Should Improve Strategies, Inventory Process, and Collaboration Guidance

GAO-22-105834
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1 Open Recommendations
Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Department of Defense The Secretary of Defense should ensure that the Chief Digital and AI Officer (once established) and the Director of the JAIC issue a roadmap or a high-level plan that captures all requirements and milestones for developing and onboarding users to the Joint Common Foundation. (Recommendation 5)
Open
DOD concurred with this recommendation. In January 2023, DOD officials told us they completed the merge of key areas of the Joint Common Foundation (JCF) and Advana and provided us an integrated roadmap for current and planned AI development capabilities. DOD officials stated that the roadmap documents the key areas of JCF that merged and migrated to Advana, including improvements to the customer intake and onboarding processes. We reviewed the integrated roadmap and requested additional documentation to ensure its sufficiency in addressing our recommendation. We have not received an update as of August 2023. When we confirm the actions the department has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.

National Security Space: Actions Needed to Better Use Commercial Satellite Imagery and Analytics

GAO-22-106106
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1 Open Recommendations
Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Department of Defense The Secretary of Defense, in coordination with the Director of National Intelligence, should ensure that clear roles and responsibilities across IC and DOD stakeholders are established for the acquisition of commercial satellite imagery, such as through a broad assessment or evaluation of organization responsibilities, and then ensure that these roles are updated in DOD guidance and communicated to all relevant stakeholders. (Recommendation 1)
Open
In January 2024, DOD provided an update where they stated that they were coordinating a Directive-type memorandum to provide interim guidance on roles and responsibilities relating to commercial satellite imagery. The agency estimated that this guidance would be issued in April 2024 and other directives would be issued in the 2025-2027 timeframe. Note: previously in September 2022, DoD noted they would address the recommendation by revising DoDD 5105.23 National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) and DoDD 5105.60, National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) to capture decisions related to the roles and responsibilities associated with commercial imagery acquisition. The department estimated these updates would be completed in October 2023 for the latter and October 2024 for the former.

DOD Bulk Fuel: Improved Management over Transactions Could Lead to More Reliable Financial Reporting

GAO-23-105531
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1 Open Recommendations
Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Department of Defense The Under Secretary of Defense (Acquisition and Sustainment) should develop a process to verify that the yearly bulk fuel reconciliations are performed in accordance with volume 2B, chapter 9, of the DOD Financial Management Regulation. (Recommendation 17)
Open
DOD concurred with this recommendation. In its response, DOD stated that it will work with its components, the Defense Logisitics Agency, the Office of the Undersecretary of Defense (Comptroller) and the Office of the Undersecretary of Defense (Aquisition and Sustainment) to develop a process for verifying that yearly bulk-fuel reconciliations are performed in accordance with applicable guidance. DOD did not provide an estimated completion date. We will continue to follow-up with DOD on the status of this recommendation.

Military Housing: DOD Can Further Strengthen Oversight of Its Privatized Housing Program [Reissued with Revisions Apr. 20, 2023]

GAO-23-105377
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1 Open Recommendations
Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Department of Defense The Secretary of Defense should ensure that the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Housing completes OSD's study of military housing personnel needs, and establishes deadlines for submitting a report to Congress evaluating the shortage of civilian personnel performing oversight functions at DOD's military housing offices. (Recommendation 11)
Open
When we confirm what actions the agency has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.

Military Barracks: Poor Living Conditions Undermine Quality of Life and Readiness

GAO-23-105797
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1 Open Recommendations
Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Department of Defense The Secretary of the Air Force should update the Air Force's minimum standards for assignment to barracks to ensure they reflect DOD guidance on health and safety standards for barracks once DOD's minimum standards have been clarified. (Recommendation 6)
Open
When we confirm what actions the agency has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.
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