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Security Assistance: DOD's Ongoing Reforms Address Some Challenges, but Additional Information Is Needed to Further Enhance Program Management

GAO-13-84 Published: Nov 16, 2012. Publicly Released: Nov 16, 2012.
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Highlights

What GAO Found

Security cooperation officials report three major types of challenges--training and workforce structure, defining partner country requirements, and obtaining acquisition and delivery status information--in conducting assistance programs. Ongoing Department of Defense (DOD) reforms address challenges that DOD security cooperation officials reported in meeting staff training needs and achieving the optimum workforce structure. The Defense Security Cooperation Agency (DSCA) has also initiated efforts to respond to challenges in developing assistance requests resulting from the limited expertise of partner countries and U.S. Security Cooperation Organization (SCO) staff in identifying country assistance requirements and the equipment that can meet them. However, according to DOD security cooperation officials, information gaps in the acquisition and delivery phases of the security assistance process continue to hinder the effectiveness of U.S. assistance. Nearly all of GAO's focus groups and interviews reported persistent difficulties obtaining information on the status of security assistance acquisitions and deliveries because information systems are difficult to access and contain limited information. DOD's existing delivery tracking system provides only limited data on the status of equipment deliveries because partner country agents and DOD agencies are not entering the needed data into the system. Without advance notice of deliveries, SCO staff have been unable to ensure that addresses were correct and that partner countries were ready to receive and process deliveries, resulting in delays or increased costs. DOD is developing a new information system to address information gaps, but it is not expected to be fully implemented until 2020.

DSCA data indicate that DOD has improved timeliness in the initial phases of the security assistance process, but these data provide limited information on other phases. The average number of days spent developing a security assistance agreement has improved from an average of 124 days in fiscal year 2007 to 109 days in fiscal year 2011. However, assessing the timeliness of the whole security assistance process is difficult because DSCA has limited timeliness measures for later phases, which often comprise the most time-consuming activities. For example, DSCA has not established a performance measure to assess the timeliness of acquisition, which can take years. In addition, DSCA does not consistently measure delivery performance against estimated delivery dates. Without such performance measures, DSCA cannot assess historical trends or the extent to which reforms impact the timeliness of the security assistance process.

Why GAO Did This Study

Congress appropriated approximately $18.8 billion in fiscal year 2012 for various security cooperation and assistance programs that supply military equipment and training to more than 100 partner countries. Amid concerns that traditional security assistance programs were too slow, Congress established several new programs in recent years. DSCA oversees the security assistance process, with key functions in agreement development, acquisition, and equipment delivery performed by U.S. military departments. DOD has undertaken a variety of management reforms since 2010 to improve the security assistance process. GAO assessed the extent to which (1) DOD reforms address implementation challenges faced by security cooperation officials and (2) DSCA performance measures indicate improvement in the timeliness of security assistance. GAO analyzed DOD data and performance measures, conducted focus groups and interviews with security cooperation officials at all six geographic combatant commands, and interviewed SCO staff for 17 countries.

Recommendations

GAO recommends that the Secretary of Defense (1) establish procedures to ensure that DOD agencies enter needed acquisition and delivery status data into security assistance information systems and (2) establish performance measures to assess timeliness for additional phases of the security assistance process. DOD concurred with GAO's recommendations.

Recommendations for Executive Action

Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Department of Defense To improve the ability of combatant command and SCO officials to obtain information on the acquisition and delivery status of assistance agreements, the Secretary of Defense should establish procedures to help ensure that DOD agencies are populating security assistance information systems with complete data.
Closed – Implemented
The Defense Security Cooperation Agency (DSCA) concurred with the recommendation. In June 2013, DSCA updated the Security Assistance Management Manual (SAMM) to require Security Cooperation Officers (SCOs) to use the Enhanced Freight Tracking System (EFTS) to report the delivery of material provided under Building Partner Capacity (BPC) programs within 30 days of delivery. As of May 2014, DSCA has taken several steps to further improve the population of information systems. In early May 2014, the EFTS finalized programming that allows a daily upload of available data for Foreign Military Sales (FMS) and BPC materiel. DSCA reports that by mid-May 2014, EFTS had in-transit visibility for 75% of shipments. In addition, DOD is developing a feed of contract information from the Mechanization of Contract Administration Services (MOCAS) to the Security Cooperation Management Suite (SCMS) - planned for implementation in August 2014. Further, requirements for maintaining accurate and timely acquisition and delivery status have been identified during the design of the Security Cooperation Enterprise Solution (SCES), a planned information system to aggregate data from the separate computer management systems used by DOD's implementing agencies and standardize the handling of security assistance agreements across the military services.
Department of Defense To improve the ability to measure the timeliness and efficiency of the security assistance process, the Secretary of Defense should assess timeliness for the acquisition phase of the security assistance process.
Closed – Not Implemented
The Defense Security Cooperation Agency (DSCA) concurred with the recommendation. As of May 2014, DSCA stated that it was working with each of the Military Departments and the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology, and Logistics (AT&L) to obtain more consolidated acquisition and contracting data and better measure performance. As of that time, all three Military Departments had implemented tracking systems for acquisitions and the Navy flagged any delayed acquisitions, however they had not developed metrics for tracking. As of 2017, none of the Departments had developed such metrics. DASA-DEC uses a dashboard to monitor the Army FMS process and is currently trying to identify what metrics from the dashboard might be leading indicators of successful FMS acquisition outcomes. Navy IPO officials similarly stated that they have ongoing efforts to improve contracting activity performance, but these are not related to the use of performance metrics. Air Force SAF/IA officials noted that, while they collect a lot of data and review it for potential ways to manage FMS cases better; they have not developed acquisition-specific metrics to apply for all procurements.
Department of Defense To improve the ability to measure the timeliness and efficiency of the security assistance process, the Secretary of Defense should establish a performance measure to assess timeliness for the delivery phase of the security assistance process.
Closed – Implemented
DSCA concurred with this recommendation. In August 2013 Defense Security Cooperation Agency (DSCA) updated the Security Assistance Management Manual (SAMM) to include a metric for the delivery phase of standard requests. The standard for delivery of the first article, service or training is within 180 days of Letter of Offer and Acceptance (LOA) implementation for at least 50% of an Implementing Agency's total LOAs and for at least 50% of all LOAs an Implementing Agency manages for a given purchaser country.
Department of Defense To improve the ability to measure the timeliness and efficiency of the security assistance process, the Secretary of Defense should establish a performance measure to assess timeliness for the case closure phase of the security assistance process.
Closed – Implemented
DSCA concurred with this recommendation. In order to address GAO's recommendation, in fall 2013, DSCA developed a tool within the Security Cooperation Management Suite (SCMS) to capture case closure data from Implementing Agencies. In May 2014, DSCA reported that it would use that data to set timeliness goals and track progress. As of September 2015, DSCA reported that the tool now included metrics and measurements for the "Aging" of cases within the different milestones and allowed for analysis of closure times based on the type and relative complexity of categories or cases.

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Afghanistan securitySecurity cooperationDefense AcquisitionPerformance measurementLicense agreementsAid programsInformation systemsFreightMilitary forcesLabor force