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Open Recommendations (783 total)

Special Operations Forces: Better Data Necessary to Improve Oversight and Address Command and Control Challenges

GAO-23-105163
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1 Open Recommendations
Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Department of Defense The Secretary of Defense should ensure the Commander, U.S. Special Operations Command, and the Geographic Combatant Commands, together with the Joint Staff and in consultation with the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Special Operations and Low-Intensity Conflict, develop and employ a standard and consistent terminology on SOF command and control structures, whether through updated doctrine, guidance, or other means. (Recommendation 1)
Open
DOD concurred with this recommendation. According to an action plan provided to us in March 2023, DOD officials indicated they are taking steps to implement this recommendation. Specifically, U.S. Special Operations Command officials noted they are taking steps to encourage Combatant Commanders to employ nomenclature on SOF command and control structures that it publishes annually. These officials noted their efforts are ongoing. By employing a standard and consistent terminology on SOF command and control structures, whether through updated doctrine, guidance, or other means, DOD could improve transparency of its command and control structures and further enhance oversight conducted by entities, such as Congress, as GAO recommended in October 2022.

Defense Health Care: Additional Assessments Needed to Determine Effects of Active Duty Medical Personnel Reductions

GAO-23-106094
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1 Open Recommendations
Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Department of Defense The Secretary of the Navy, in coordination with the Surgeon General of the Navy, should use the results of such assessments to inform the number of active duty medical personnel reductions. (Recommendation 3)
Open
When we confirm what actions the agency has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.

DOD Financial Management: Additional Actions Needed to Achieve a Clean Audit Opinion on DOD’s Financial Statements

GAO-23-105784
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1 Open Recommendations
Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Department of Defense The Under Secretary of Defense (Comptroller) should document the consideration of dependencies identified in component-level roadmaps when developing its DOD-wide roadmap. (Recommendation 2)
Open
In its comments on our draft report, DOD partially concurred with this recommendation. DOD stated that components are required to identify the dependencies in component-level roadmaps in support of the remediation dates for each identified component-level material weakness. In addition, DOD stated that considerations to timeline adjustments are made at the components' discretion. However, the consideration of dependencies that would need to be resolved before material weaknesses could be remediated is not documented. We will continue to monitor DOD efforts to address this recommendation.

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 Defense should ensure that the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Energy, Installations, and Environment examines how the services develop and use mission scores for barracks and, based on that review, provides guidance to the services on how they should develop and use these mission scores for purposes of barracks improvement prioritization, including, as appropriate, increasing consistency to the maximum extent practicable. (Recommendation 20)
Open
When we confirm what actions the agency has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.

Environmental Cleanup: DOD Should Communicate Future Costs for Red Hill Remediation and Closure

GAO-24-106185
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1 Open Recommendations
Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Department of Defense The Secretary of Defense should expand the information available to Congress regarding the agency's fiscal exposure related to the Red Hill Bulk Fuel Facility by clearly identifying anticipated costs for defueling, remediating, and closing Red Hill in supplemental reports or other budget materials, updating the information as more is learned. (Recommendation 1)
Open
In its comments on our draft report, DOD agreed with this recommendation and discussed planned implementation steps. Specifically, as planned site assessments are completed and closure and remediation plans receive regulatory approval, estimable cost projections will be incorporated and communicated through the normal budget process. The action that DOD described, if implemented effectively, would address our recommendation.

Whistleblower Protection: Analysis of DOD's Actions to Improve Case Timeliness and Safeguard Confidentiality

GAO-19-198
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1 Open Recommendations
Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Department of Defense The DOD Inspector General should coordinate with the IGs of the military services to take additional actions to improve performance against unmet timeliness goals. This includes steps to improve performance of senior official misconduct investigations and military service reprisal intakes, and to resolve disagreement on notifications. (Recommendation 1)
Open – Partially Addressed
The DOD Inspector General concurred with this recommendation, and in December 2019 reported to the Chairs of the Senate and House Armed Services Committees that DOD and the military service Inspectors General had convened a working group to coordinate performance improvement on unmet timeliness goals. According to the IG, the working group's recommendations are being incorporated into uniform standards for reprisal investigations that were expected to be finalized in the second quarter of fiscal year 2020. In January 2022, DODIG provided GAO with evidence of actions it took in October 2021 to implement part of this recommendation. Specifically, DODIG issued guidance informing military service IGs to promptly notify DODIG of receiving all allegations of reprisal or restriction. This guidance clarifies conditions under which military service IGs can close complaints without DODIG consultation, which would improve reprisal intake timeliness and resolve disagreement on notifications. To fully implement this recommendation, DODIG needs to provide evidence of actions taken to improve timeliness for senior official misconduct investigations. In December 2022, DODIG officials told us that a new DOD instruction for senior official misconduct investigations, which will address timeliness, is expected to be complete in September 2024.

Financial Management: DOD Needs to Improve System Oversight

GAO-23-104539
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1 Open Recommendations
Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Department of Defense The Secretary of the Navy should direct the Chief Management Officer of the Department of the Navy to update guidance for initial approval and annual certification of covered business and financial systems. The update should ensure guidance for non-priority Department of the Navy business and financial systems fully addresses the statutory requirements discussed in this report. (Recommendation 4)
Open – Partially Addressed
As of March 2024, the Department of the Navy (Navy) demonstrated that it has partially addressed the recommendation. Specifically, in February 2024, the Navy provided a closure request memorandum to provide more detailed guidance on how Navy approval authorities are to validate compliance with the requirements in 10 U.S.C. section 2222. This includes, among other things, ensuring that systems are in compliance with the Department's auditability requirements. The memorandum described documentation that systems are to submit along with their initial and annual certification requests, as well as other related information that approving officials are to assess as part of this process. While the Navy's February 2024 closure request memorandum provides additional information associated with documenting and substantiating that systems meet statutory requirements, the memorandum is not part of the Navy's guidance for initial approval or annual review. Further, as of March 2024, the Department of Defense plans to address the recommendations from this report associated with updating its department-level initial approval and annual certification guidance and updating its business enterprise architecture by September and October 2024, respectively. We will continue to monitor Navy's efforts to fully implement this recommendation.

Climate Change Adaptation: DOD Needs to Better Incorporate Adaptation into Planning and Collaboration at Overseas Installations

GAO-18-206
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1 Open Recommendations
Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Department of Defense The Secretary of Defense should direct the Secretaries of the Army, Navy, and Air Force to issue guidance, as appropriate, that calls for more formal coordination mechanisms related to climate change adaptation, such as memorandums of understanding, between DOD installations and surrounding host-nation communities. (Recommendation 6)
Open
In October 2017, DOD partially concurred with our recommendation. According to a July 2018 Corrective Action Plan provided by DOD, the Department is continuing to review guidance for establishing agreements between host-nation communities and DOD installations. Further, DOD noted that any updates would occur on a "rolling basis." DOD officials stated that as of June 2021 the department had not taken any actions to implement this recommendation. As of November 2023, DOD had not provided GAO with further updates on the status of this recommendation. As such, we will continue to monitor the status of DOD's efforts to address 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 Secretary of the Navy should develop targeted strategies for using its recruitment, training, and retention programs collectively to address key military physician gaps in a coordinated manner, and metrics that would monitor the effectiveness of its programs collectively in reducing gaps. (Recommendation 2)
Open
Navy concurred with this recommendation. In October 2019, Navy officials stated that several steps have been taken, including exploring policy changes that would assist in meeting requirements. According to Navy officials, a working group was formed to address recruitment and retention of all critical specialties and finalized a report August 2018. In November 2023, the Navy reported it will continue monitoring recruitment and retention data and DOD reported it estimates this recommendation will be fully implemented by December 2023. In November 2023, we requested additional information about the status of this recommendation. We will continue to monitor DOD's actions to implement this recommendation.

Women in STEM Research: Better Data and Information Sharing Could Improve Oversight of Federal Grant-making and Title IX Compliance

GAO-16-14
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1 Open Recommendations
Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Department of Defense To comply with Title IX enforcement requirements, the Secretary of the Department of Defense, which funds STEM research at universities, should direct the Director of the Office of Diversity Management and Equal Opportunity to ensure that Title IX compliance reviews of DOD's grantees are periodically conducted.
Open
DOD agreed with this recommendation. In 2017, a DOD official stated that the agency is in the process of formulating instructions related to Title IX and Title VI that they believe will address Title IX enforcement requirements. The agency plans to draft an updated rule for the Code of Federal Regulations and the development and issuance of internal DOD policy documents regarding Title IX enforcement requirements. In 2020, DOD reported that it was continuing to revise current DOD guidance to address its Title IX enforcement requirements and would issue a policy memorandum outlining the requirement for DOD Components who provide financial assistance to educational programs or activities to conduct periodic compliance reviews. DOD anticipates completing this effort by June 30, 2022. As of March 2023, DOD stated that it continues to pursue avenues to implement this recommendation, in the midst of competing priorities. It will revisit its approach to finalizing a policy and federal regulation that requires compliance with Title IX, including instructions for compliance reviews to be conducted. Should the agency determine a policy and regulation are necessary, it will move the policy into the formal coordination process by the end of FY2023.
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