DOD Financial Management: Implementation Weaknesses in Army and Air Force Business Systems Could Jeopardize DOD's Auditability Goals
Highlights
What GAO Found
DOD has invested billions of dollars and will invest billions more to develop and implement its ERPs. The ERPs play a key role in DOD’s goal of audit readiness by fiscal year 2017. Furthermore, in light of the Secretary of Defense’s decision that the Statement of Budgetary Resources is to be audit ready by fiscal year 2014, it is critical that DOD effectively implement the ERPs to support its auditability goals.
Assessments by independent agencies of the Army’s General Fund Enterprise Business System (GFEBS) and the Global Combat Support System and the Air Force’s Defense Enterprise and Accounting Management System (DEAMS) and Expeditionary Combat Support System identified operational problems, such as deficiencies in data accuracy, inability to generate auditable financial reports, and the need for manual workarounds. Further, according to DFAS users, GFEBS and DEAMS did not provide all expected capabilities in accounting and decision support. For example:
Approximately two-thirds of invoice and receipt data must be manually entered into GFEBS from the invoicing and receiving system due to interface problems. Army officials explained that the primary cause of the problem is that the interface specification that GFEBS is required by DOD to use does not provide the same level of functionality as the interface specification used by the legacy systems. At the time of our review, Army officials stated that they are working with DOD to resolve the problem, but no time frame for resolution had been established.
DEAMS cannot produce the monthly accounts receivable aging report as intended. The DEAMS Financial Management Office is aware of the problems and is in the process of resolving them. However, at the time of our review, no timetable had been set for the problems’ resolution.
DOD oversight authority has limited the deployment of GFEBS and DEAMS based upon the results of the independent assessments. Continued monitoring of DOD ERPs is essential to identify system weaknesses and to help ensure that the systems provide the promised capabilities. Without timely and effective corrective action, the department is at risk of making investment and system deployment decisions that may not provide the desired results—improvements in the department’s business operations.
According to DFAS personnel, the training they received for GFEBS and DEAMS did not fully meet their needs. DFAS personnel informed us that the training focused on an overview of GFEBS and DEAMS and how the systems were supposed to operate. While this was beneficial in identifying how GFEBS and DEAMS were different from the existing legacy systems, the training focused too much on concepts rather than the skills needed for DFAS users to perform their day-to-day operations.
Why GAO Did This Study
The Department of Defense (DOD) has stated that successful implementation of its enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems is critical to DOD’s auditability goals. An ERP is an automated system that performs a variety of business-related functions. The National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2010 mandates that DOD be able to validate its financial statements as audit ready by September 30, 2017. GAO has previously reported that DOD has not effectively employed acquisition management controls to help ensure that the ERPs deliver the promised capabilities on time and within budget. GAO was asked to determine issues being encountered by the Army and the Air Force in the implementation of selected ERPs. GAO reviewed independent assessments and reports and interviewed the systems’ users and program management office officials.
Recommendations
GAO is making five recommendations to the Secretary of Defense to ensure the correction of system problems prior to further system deployment, including user training. DOD concurred with four and partially concurred with one of the recommendations and described its efforts to address them.
Recommendations for Executive Action
| Agency Affected | Recommendation | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Department of Defense | To help provide for the successful implementation of Army and Air Force ERPs, and to help ensure that Defense Finance and Accounting Service (DFAS) users have the training needed, the Secretary of Defense should direct that the Milestone Decision Authority (MDA) for GFEBS, Global Combat Support System-Army (GCSS-Army), DEAMS, and Expeditionary Combat Support System (ECSS) ensure that any future system deficiencies identified through independent assessments are resolved or mitigated prior to further deployment of the systems. |
In commenting on a draft of this report, DOD partially concurred with this recommendation. DOD officials' position is that it is not cost effective to fully implement our recommendation. Since DOD officials only partially concurred with our recommendation we do not reasonably expect DOD to complete any further actions. Therefore, this recommendation will be closed as not implemented.
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| Department of Defense | To help provide for the successful implementation of Army and Air Force ERPs, and to help ensure that DFAS users have the training needed, the Secretary of Defense should direct the Secretary of the Army to ensure that time lines are established and monitored for those issues identified by DFAS that are impacting their efficient and effective use of GFEBS. |
DOD concurred with the recommendation and cited action(s) being taken by the Army to ensure that time lines are established and monitored for those issues identified by DFAS that are impacting their efficient and effective use of GFEBS. We have made numerous attempts to obtain information from DOD to determine their efforts to implement this recommendation but DOD has not provided us with the support. We are closing this recommendation as not implemented because it is over four years old and DOD is unable to provide us with documentation to show us what actions have been taken.
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| Department of Defense | To help provide for the successful implementation of Army and Air Force ERPs, and to help ensure that DFAS users have the training needed, the Secretary of Defense should direct the Secretary of the Air Force to ensure that time lines are established and monitored for those issues identified by DFAS that are impacting their efficient and effective use of DEAMS. |
DOD concurred with the recommendation and cited action(s) being taken by the Air Force to ensure that time lines are established and monitored for those issues identified by DFAS that are impacting their efficient and effective use of DEAMS. We have made numerous attempts to obtain information from DOD to determine their efforts to implement this recommendation but DOD has not provided us with the support. We are closing this recommendation as not implemented because it is over four years old and DOD is unable to provide us with documentation to show us what actions have been taken.
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| Department of Defense | To help provide for the successful implementation of Army and Air Force ERPs, and to help ensure that DFAS users have the training needed, the Secretary of Defense should direct the Secretary of the Army to improve training for GFEBS users by providing training on actual job processes in a manner that allows users to understand how the new processes support their job responsibilities and the work they are expected to perform. |
DOD concurred with the recommendation and cited action(s) being taken by the Army to improve training for GFEBS users on actual job processes. We have made numerous attempts to obtain information from DOD to determine their efforts to implement this recommendation but DOD has not provided us with the support. We are closing this recommendation as not implemented because it is over four years old and DOD is unable to provide us with documentation to show us what actions have been taken.
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| Department of Defense | To help provide for the successful implementation of Army and Air Force ERPs, and to help ensure that DFAS users have the training needed, the Secretary of Defense should direct the Secretary of the Air Force to improve training for DEAMS users by providing training on actual job processes in a manner that allows users to understand how the new processes support their job responsibilities and the work they are expected to perform. |
DOD concurred with the recommendation and cited action(s) being taken by the Air Force to improve training for DEAMS users on actual job processes. We have made numerous attempts to obtain information from DOD to determine their efforts to implement this recommendation but DOD has not provided us with the support. We are closing this recommendation as not implemented because it is over four years old and DOD is unable to provide us with documentation to show us what actions have been taken.
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