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Open Recommendations (208 total)

Navy Shipbuilding: Increasing Focus on Sustainment Early in the Acquisition Process Could Save Billions

GAO-20-2
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1 Open Recommendations
Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Department of the Navy The Secretary of the Navy should direct the Commander of Naval Sea Systems Command to ensure that cost estimators follow current guidance and GAO-identified best practices and conduct sensitivity analyses and other analyses to improve their assessment of cost risk in the O&S costs in shipbuilding programs' life-cycle cost estimates. (Recommendation 6)
Open – Partially Addressed
The Navy agreed with GAO's March 2020 recommendation. In January 2023, Navy officials reiterated their agreement that using risk and sensitivity analyses can help ensure shipbuilding programs' estimates of operating and support (O&S) costs are credible and defensible, and they identified several DOD and Navy policies and guides that require the use of such analyses when developing life-cycle cost estimates. As of March 2023, GAO had reviewed one recent life-cycle cost estimate for a shipbuilding program that incorporated O&S risk and sensitivity analyses, and the Navy was in the process of providing GAO with additional documentation demonstrating their implementation of O&S cost estimating guidance. GAO will continue to monitor the Navy's efforts to implement this recommendation as more information becomes available.

Small Business Research Programs: Agencies Should Further Improve Award Timeliness

GAO-22-104677
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1 Open Recommendations
Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Department of the Navy The Secretary of the Navy should evaluate the effectiveness of steps taken to improve SBIR and STTR award timeliness and take any necessary additional steps in order to consistently meet SBA award timeliness guidelines. (Recommendation 19)
Open – Partially Addressed
In its February 2022 letter responding to our report, DOD concurred with this recommendation. The Department of the Navy provided information demonstrating its evaluation of award timeliness, which indicated that prior efforts to address timeliness did not have a lasting effect into the FY 2021 award cycle. As a result, the Navy will continue efforts to evaluate its performance and is considering additional steps to improve timeliness, according to DOD's letter and the information Navy provided. In December 2023, we obtained and analyzed publicly available Navy award data for FY22. Our analysis indicated that the Navy did not meet SBA's award timeliness guidelines in FY22. Further, in combination with prior fiscal years, the Navy has not met SBA's timeliness guidelines in at least 3 of the preceding 5 years based on available data. Going forward, we will follow up to obtain data on the Navy's award timeliness in subsequent fiscal years to determine if actions the agency has taken have resulted in it being able to consistently meet SBA's award timeliness guidelines.

Navy Shipbuilding: Increasing Focus on Sustainment Early in the Acquisition Process Could Save Billions

GAO-20-2
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3 Open Recommendations
1 Priority
Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Department of the Navy
Priority Rec.
The Secretary of the Navy should direct the ASN (RD&A) to ensure all shipbuilding programs develop and update LCSPs, in accordance with DOD policy, that demonstrate how a ship class can be affordably operated and maintained while meeting sustainment requirements, including associated business case analyses and identifying sustainment risk. (Recommendation 7)
Open – Partially Addressed
The Navy agreed with our recommendation and, in April 2022, updated its acquisition policy to reiterate that all large acquisition programs--such as shipbuilding programs--were required to develop and regularly update a life-cycle sustainment plan (LCSP). The updated policy also clarified which Navy officials were responsible for drafting and approving the LCSP. Additionally, according to existing DOD policy and guidance, LCSPs should include business case analyses and discussions of sustainment risks. Officials stated the Navy plans to update the LCSPs for all of its shipbuilding programs and ensure they include all required elements, as we recommended. However, given the number of LCSPs that need to be updated, officials estimate it will take the Navy several years to complete this effort. As of February 2024, officials stated the Navy was developing a schedule for updating shipbuilding programs' LCSPs. GAO will continue to monitor the Navy's plan to update all shipbuilding program's LCSPs and its actions to ensure any new or revised LCSPs align with policy requirements.
Department of the Navy The Secretary of the Navy should direct the ASN (RD&A) and the CNO to ensure sustainment-related briefing topics prescribed by the Navy's acquisition policy are consistently discussed at Gate reviews. (Recommendation 9)
Open – Partially Addressed
The Navy agreed with GAO's March 2020 recommendation and, as of March 2023, officials stated the Navy had begun taking steps to address the intent of the recommendation. For example, the Navy established a Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Sustainment to help ensure sustainment is considered in acquisition decisions, including Gate reviews. The Navy also updated its acquisition policy to implement a new sustainment Gate review at the end of the acquisition process and reiterated existing requirements in the policy for sustainment topics to be discussed during all other Gate reviews. As of March 2023, GAO found that the Navy was more consistently considering sustainment topics during recent Gate reviews. However, all of these recent Gate reviews were for programs already in the late stages of the acquisition process. Since it is critical to consider long-term sustainment planning during the early stages of the acquisition process, as GAO noted in its 2020 report, GAO maintains that the Navy needs to demonstrate a commitment to discussing sustainment at all Gate reviews, including the Gate reviews early in the acquisition process. GAO will continue to monitor the Navy's actions to carry out Gate reviews in alignment with its policy and to confirm that sustainment topics are being discussed during early Gate reviews.
Department of the Navy The Secretary of the Navy should direct the ASN (RD&A) and the CNO to implement the sustainment program baseline initiative for shipbuilding programs and, in so doing, develop a mechanism that ensures that sustainment outcomes are a factor in shipbuilding programs' decision-making during the acquisition process. (Recommendation 10)
Open – Partially Addressed
The Navy agreed with GAO's March 2020 recommendation and in April 2022, the Navy updated its acquisition policy to include new direction on the use of sustainment program baselines. According to the updated policy, the sustainment program baseline is a comprehensive tool for continually assessing and managing a program's life-cycle sustainment plans and it contains information on the program's sustainment requirements, funding profile, and risks. However, the Navy's policy does not establish the sustainment program baseline as a requirement for shipbuilding programs, instead categorizing it as a best practice. In July 2023, Navy officials said that 2 of its shipbuilding programs had chosen to use sustainment program baselines but several other programs had chosen not to do so. In February 2024, officials agreed to reconsider making the sustainment program baseline a requirement but had yet to make any further changes to the Navy's acquisition policy. GAO maintains that sustainment program baselines have the potential to increase Navy leadership's insight into programs' sustainment planning and outcomes, and that such baselines should be used from the beginning of the acquisition process by all shipbuilding programs.

Sexual Assault: DOD and Coast Guard Should Ensure Laws Are Implemented to Improve Oversight of Key Prevention and Response Efforts

GAO-22-103973
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1 Open Recommendations
Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Department of the Navy The Secretary of the Navy should ensure that the Navy and the Marine Corps include all required information in the annual reports. (Recommendation 3)
Open – Partially Addressed
The Department of Defense concurred with this recommendation in March 2022. As of August 2023, the department had updated its data call to the military services and National Guard Bureau for the Fiscal Year 2022 Annual Report Annual Report on Sexual Assault in the Military (published in April 2023). We reviewed this report and identified that it included some required information we identified as missing from prior reports. However, it did not include all required information. We will review the next annual report when it is published.

Sexual Assault: DOD and Coast Guard Should Ensure Laws Are Implemented to Improve Oversight of Key Prevention and Response Efforts

GAO-22-103973
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1 Open Recommendations
Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Department of the Navy The Secretary of the Navy should ensure that the Superintendent of the United States Naval Academy takes steps to document actions taken in accordance with section 545(a)-(c) of the John S. McCain NDAA for Fiscal Year 2019. (Recommendation 17)
Open – Partially Addressed
In March 2022, the Department of Defense concurred with this recommendation. As of July 2023, the Navy had updated its resource guide to provide assurance that leadership will take appropriate corrective action. However, the guide did not include a thorough explanation of prohibited conduct, including examples, nor did they provide sufficient documentation to show that students who reported being victims of sexual assault were provided the guide as soon as practicable.

Navy Ships: Applying Leading Practices and Transparent Reporting Could Help Reduce Risks Posed by Nearly $1.8 Billion Maintenance Backlog

GAO-22-105032
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1 Open Recommendations
Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Department of the Navy The Secretary of the Navy should ensure that Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA) establishes performance goals, baselines for outcomes, and performance measures to manage the surface ship deferred depot maintenance backlog. (Recommendation 1)
Open – Partially Addressed
In 2022, as a result of GAO's review, the Navy developed a process for estimating the surface ship deferred depot maintenance backlog, and Navy officials sent GAO its estimate of its ship deferred maintenenace backlog which we included in our report. The Navy now has a reliable estimate of its aggregate ship deferred maintenance backlog which officials said will help them better measure their progress reducing the backlog. The Navy is now better positioned to develop performance goals, measures, and baselines for outcomes to reduce the existing backlog, as we recommend in our report. By doing so, the Navy could promote improved operational readiness. Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA) is working on establishing performance measures, performance goals and a baseline to track and manage the backlog and expects to complete these metrics in 2023.

Navy Ship Maintenance: Evaluating Pilot Program Outcomes Could Inform Decisions to Address Persistent Schedule Challenges

GAO-20-370
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1 Open Recommendations
Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Department of the Navy The Secretary of the Navy should establish an analysis plan for the evaluation of OPN-funded pilot program availabilities, based on the leading practices for pilot programs. This analysis plan should identify opportunities to evaluate schedule outcomes of pilot program availabilities as compared to non-pilot program availabilities and document a process for evaluating lessons learned from the pilot program (Recommendation 1).
Open – Partially Addressed
The Department of the Navy concurred with our recommendation, stating that it would establish an analysis plan for evaluating Other Procurement, Navy-funded pilot program availabilities. Since then, the Director, Maintenance & Modernization, within the Office of the Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Ship Programs, has submitted a series of reports to Congress outlining the Navy's performance evaluations on the private contracted ship maintenance pilot program. These reports have contained some elements of our recommended analysis plan in that they describe opportunities to evaluate schedule outcomes of pilot availabilities as compared to non-pilot availabilities. However, these reports have not yet identified a process for evaluating lessons learned from the pilot and facilitating related communications with stakeholders. Correspondent with these reports, the Navy has also issued reports to Congress regarding the execution of funds used for pilot program implementation. These reports have identified some elements of a methodology that could be used to evaluate pilot program outcomes, but have not yet described processes for evaluating lessons learned or facilitating related communications with stakeholders. The Director, Maintenance & Modernization stated in July 2023 that the Navy is continuing its work to fully address the recommendation, including consideration of a process for collecting and communicating lessons learned. However, the Director stated that the Navy does not have an expected timeframe for completion of these efforts. We are currently awaiting information regarding this process and will continue to monitor progress. We will also continue to review the Navy's future reports for the pilot program and the ship depot maintenance budget to assess the Navy's responsiveness to our recommendation.

Navy Ships: Applying Leading Practices and Transparent Reporting Could Help Reduce Risks Posed by Nearly $1.8 Billion Maintenance Backlog

GAO-22-105032
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1 Open Recommendations
Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Department of the Navy The Secretary of the Navy should ensure that information on the aggregate ship deferred maintenance backlog estimate is included in congressional budget requests and related reports. (Recommendation 5)
Open – Partially Addressed
In March 2023, the Navy included a new exhibit on ship deferred maintenance in the Fiscal Year 2024 President's Budget Request. As our report stated, by doing so, the Navy provides the Congress and Navy senior leaders the information they need to effectively prioritize resources. Navy officials said that they intend to issue guidance in September 2023 to document the requirement to provide this information with future President's Budget Requests.
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