Military Recruiting: Clarified Reporting Requirements and Increased Transparency Could Strengthen Oversight over Recruiter Irregularities
GAO-10-254
Published: Jan 28, 2010. Publicly Released: Jan 28, 2010.
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Highlights
To sustain a viable military force, the Department of Defense (DOD) depends on recruiting several hundred thousand qualified individuals into the military each year. The service components rely on their recruiters to act with the utmost integrity because even a single incident of wrongdoing on the part of a recruiter--a recruiter irregularity--can adversely affect the service components' ability to recruit qualified individuals. GAO was asked to (1) analyze data on reported cases of recruiter irregularities across the service components, (2) review the extent to which the service components have guidance and procedures to address recruiter irregularities, and (3) review the extent to which the Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD) has oversight over recruiter irregularities. GAO analyzed the data on recruiter irregularities reported to OSD by the service components; reviewed the service components' recruiter irregularity case files; examined relevant guidance and procedures from the service components; and interviewed service components' recruiting command personnel, recruiters, and OSD officials.
Recommendations
Recommendations for Executive Action
| Agency Affected | Recommendation | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Department of Defense | The Secretary of Defense should direct the Secretaries of the Army and Navy to identify mechanisms for the regular sharing of the recruiter irregularity data throughout all levels of command. |
Closed – Implemented
In July 2014, an official from the Office of the Secretary of Defense responsible for sharing consolidated recruiter irregularity reports with the military services provided the January 2014 quarterly report on recruiter irregularity data as well as the transmittal email that was sent to the military services. The email included language encouraging the services to appropriately share the data throughout all levels of command, in response to GAO's recommendation.
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| Department of Defense | The Secretary of Defense should direct the Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness to complete and issue the instruction on tracking and reporting data on recruiter irregularities to clarify the requirements for the types of recruiter irregularities to be reported and the placement of recruiter rregularity cases and actions taken into reporting categories. |
Closed – Implemented
On March 26, 2013, the Department of Defense issued its Instruction 1304.32, Military Services Recruiting Related Reports, which contains guidance on tracking and reporting recruiter irregularities by service components. The guidance provides specific definitions of recruiter irregularities and disposition categories for the service components to use, as well as a template to use in submitting reports of recruiter irregularities to the Office of the Secretary of Defense on a semiannual basis.
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| Department of Defense | The Secretary of Defense should direct the Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness to direct the relevant offices within the National Guard Bureau to adjust their reporting procedures in ways that will provide transparency in the data reported to OSD and any limitations on the data. |
Closed – Implemented
The office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD) reported that GAO findings prompted OSD to proactively and consistently work with the National Guard to identify and address any problems with the data. Additionally, OSD has provided training and assistance to the National Guard Bureau personnel responsible for collecting and consolidating data on recruiter irregularities from States and Territories to help improve the overall quality of the data, according to OSD official. For example, OSD recently assisted the National Guard Bureau with the development of a template with instructions and definitions for States and Territories to consistently and uniformly report their recruiter irregularity data. Such efforts help improve the quality of recruiter irregularity data and enable OSD to receive a complete picture of recruiter irregularities that are occurring.
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| Department of Defense | The Secretary of Defense should direct the Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness to include the appropriate disclosures concerning data limitations in the recruiter irregularity reports that OSD produces on the basis of the National Guard data for the Congress and others. |
Closed – Not Implemented
The Department of Defense (DOD) indicated that since the issuance of the GAO report GAO-10-254 in January 2010, the Congress has not asked DOD for a full report on recruiter irregularities; therefore there has been no need to provide disclosures on data limitations. However, in providing a copy of the January 2014 quarterly report on recruiter irregularity data to the service components, there were no caveats indicating whether or not all National Guard units had reported their data. An official with the office responsible for reporting recruiter irregularity data stated that 8 Air Guard units failed to report any data for the January 2014 quarterly report, and that this was not noted in the report because DOD did not think that it would change the overall trends presented by the data.
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Topics
Administrative errorsInternal controlsMilitary forcesMilitary recruitingQuality assuranceQuality controlQuality improvementReporting requirementsReports managementStandardsStrategic planningTotal quality managementCorrective actionPolicies and proceduresTransparency