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Defense Headquarters: Status of Efforts to Reduce Headquarters Personnel

NSIAD-99-45 Published: Feb 17, 1999. Publicly Released: Feb 17, 1999.
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Highlights

Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the Department of Defense's (DOD) efforts to reduce the size and cost of its headquarters activities, focusing on DOD's: (1) efforts to reduce headquarters positions and associated costs in the Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD) and Washington Headquarters Services, as required by the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 1997; (2) efforts to reduce headquarters positions across DOD as required by the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 1998; and (3) reporting of personnel on temporary assignment to OSD from other DOD components.

Recommendations

Recommendations for Executive Action

Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Department of Defense The Secretary of Defense should determine the number and purpose of all personnel temporarily assigned to OSD by other DOD components. Detailees that do not meet OSD's requirements of temporary staff should either be counted as OSD personnel or returned to their parent organizations.
Closed – Implemented
The office has developed a system for keeping track of detailees into OSD. The administrative instruction was revised in June 2000, to reflect that the Director of Administration and Management must approve all requests for detailees. In addition, all requests must identify the time period of the detail.

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Topics

Civilian employeesDefense cost controlFederal agency reorganizationMilitary downsizingMilitary personnelReductions in forceTemporary employmentDefense budgetsU.S. ArmyU.S. Air Force