Military Bands: Military Services Should Enhance Efforts to Measure Performance
Highlights
What GAO Found
All of the military services reported reducing the number of military band personnel from fiscal year 2012 through 2016, but trends in total reported operating costs for the bands, such as travel and equipment expenses, varied across the services. Total military personnel dedicated to bands decreased from 7,196 in fiscal year 2012 to 6,656 in fiscal year 2016, or 7.5 percent (see figure). The Navy and Air Force reported that their total operating costs for bands over this period increased by $4.1 million and $1.6 million, respectively, and the Marine Corps reported that its costs declined by about $800,000. The Army did not have complete cost data for its reserve bands, but reported that the operating costs of its active-duty and National Guard bands declined by $3.6 million and about $500,000, respectively, from fiscal year 2012 through 2016.
Trends in Military Personnel Dedicated to Bands, Fiscal Years (FY) 2012 through 2016
The military services have not developed objectives and measures to assess how their bands are addressing the bands' missions, such as inspiring patriotism and enhancing the morale of troops. All four military services have tracked information, such as the number and type of band events. Further, military-service officials cited the demand for band performances, anecdotal examples, and support from senior leadership, as ways to demonstrate the bands are addressing their missions. However, the military services' approaches do not include measurable objectives or performance measures that have several important attributes, such as linkage to mission, a baseline, and measurable targets, that GAO has found are key to successfully measuring a program's performance. Military band officials cited the difficulty and resources required to quantify how the bands are addressing their missions, but the military services are taking steps to improve how they track information on band events to measure the bands' effectiveness. GAO believes these key steps could inform and guide the services' efforts to develop and implement measurable objectives and performance measures. Doing so could provide decision makers with the information they need to assess the value of the military bands relative to resource demands for other priorities.
Why GAO Did This Study
The Department of Defense (DOD) uses military bands to enhance the morale of the troops, provide music for ceremonies, and promote public awareness. Bands across the military services support a range of activities, including funerals for military service members, events attended by high-level officials, and community-relations activities such as parades. In fiscal year 2013, DOD restricted its community-relations activities, including placing travel restrictions on bands, as a result of the sequestration ordered in March 2013. DOD reinstated community-relations activities at a reduced capacity in fiscal year 2014.
House Report 114-537 included a provision for GAO to review DOD's requirement for military bands. This report (1) describes the trends in personnel and costs for bands from fiscal year 2012 through 2016, and (2) assesses the extent to which the military services have evaluated how the bands are addressing their missions, among other objectives.
GAO analyzed data from the military services on military band personnel and reported operating costs of bands. GAO also reviewed the military services' guidance and approaches to evaluating their bands and interviewed band program officials at the military services.
Recommendations
GAO recommends that the Army, Navy, Marine Corps, and Air Force each develop and implement measurable objectives and performance measures for their bands. DOD concurred with the recommendations.
Recommendations for Executive Action
| Agency Affected | Recommendation | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Department of the Air Force | To help ensure that each service can provide information to decision makers as they assess the value of the military bands relative to resource demands for other priorities, the Secretaries of the Army, Navy, and Air Force, and the Commandant of the Marine Corps should direct the Chief of Army Music, Commanding Officer of the U.S. Navy Band, Chief of the Air Force Bands Division, and Director of Marine Corps Communications, respectively, each to develop and implement measurable objectives and performance measures for their respective services' bands. At a minimum, these measures should include the important attributes for successful performance measures of demonstrating linkage to the program's mission, establishing a baseline, and having measurable targets to demonstrate program performance. |
DOD concurred with our recommendation. The Office of the Assistant to the Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs (OATSD/PA) incorporated standard performance criteria in its Department of Defense Fiscal Year 2018 Strategic Public Affairs Outreach Activities Plan to assist the military services with developing and implementing measurable objectives and performance measures. In addition, OATSD/PA, in consultation with the Air Force and the other services, developed and implemented a tool to track the extent to which the bands' events meet the bands' missions of enhancing public confidence and patriotism among the American people; perpetuating service identity, traditions, and morale; promoting the national interests (and reassurance of allies) at home and abroad; and supporting the commander's top priority. From December 15, 2017, through June 15, 2018, the Air Force collected and analyzed data on the number of events that addressed these different missions to establish a baseline for assessing mission achievement. An OATSD/PA official stated that the Air Force will use this tool going forward to measure the success of their events, audiences targeted, and which mission(s) the events support, and to summarize the overall return on investment for its bands. Further, the OATSD/PA official stated that the Air Force has established a measurable target that each band event addresses at least one of the National Defense Strategy's three lines of efforts and at least one of the four band missions. As a result, we have closed this recommendation as implemented.
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| United States Marine Corps | To help ensure that each service can provide information to decision makers as they assess the value of the military bands relative to resource demands for other priorities, the Secretaries of the Army, Navy, and Air Force, and the Commandant of the Marine Corps should direct the Chief of Army Music, Commanding Officer of the U.S. Navy Band, Chief of the Air Force Bands Division, and Director of Marine Corps Communications, respectively, each to develop and implement measurable objectives and performance measures for their respective services' bands. At a minimum, these measures should include the important attributes for successful performance measures of demonstrating linkage to the program's mission, establishing a baseline, and having measurable targets to demonstrate program performance. |
DOD concurred with our recommendation. The Office of the Assistant to the Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs (OATSD/PA) incorporated standard performance criteria in its Department of Defense Fiscal Year 2018 Strategic Public Affairs Outreach Activities Plan to assist the military services with developing and implementing measurable objectives and performance measures. In addition, OATSD/PA, in consultation with the Marine Corps and the other services, developed and implemented a tool to track the extent to which the bands' events meet the bands' missions of enhancing public confidence and patriotism among the American people; perpetuating service identity, traditions, and morale; promoting the national interests (and reassurance of allies) at home and abroad; and supporting the commander's top priority. From October 1, 2017, to June 30, 2018, the Marine Corps collected and analyzed data on the number of events that addressed these different missions to establish a baseline for assessing mission achievement. An OATSD/PA official stated that the Marine Corps will use this tool going forward to measure the success of their events, audiences targeted, and which mission(s) the events support, and to summarize the overall return on investment for its bands. Further, the OATSD/PA official stated that the Marine Corps has established a measurable target that each band event addresses at least one of the National Defense Strategy's three lines of efforts and at least one of the four band missions. As a result, we have closed this recommendation as implemented.
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| Department of the Navy | To help ensure that each service can provide information to decision makers as they assess the value of the military bands relative to resource demands for other priorities, the Secretaries of the Army, Navy, and Air Force, and the Commandant of the Marine Corps should direct the Chief of Army Music, Commanding Officer of the U.S. Navy Band, Chief of the Air Force Bands Division, and Director of Marine Corps Communications, respectively, each to develop and implement measurable objectives and performance measures for their respective services' bands. At a minimum, these measures should include the important attributes for successful performance measures of demonstrating linkage to the program's mission, establishing a baseline, and having measurable targets to demonstrate program performance. |
DOD concurred with our recommendation. The Office of the Assistant to the Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs (OATSD/PA) incorporated standard performance criteria in its Department of Defense Fiscal Year 2018 Strategic Public Affairs Outreach Activities Plan to assist the military services with developing and implementing measurable objectives and performance measures. In addition, OATSD/PA, in consultation with the Navy and the other services, developed and implemented a tool to track the extent to which the bands' events meet the bands' missions of enhancing public confidence and patriotism among the American people; perpetuating service identity, traditions, and morale; promoting the national interests (and reassurance of allies) at home and abroad; and supporting the commander's top priority. OATSD/PA and the Navy analyzed data from October 2018 through June 2019 on the number of band events that met these different missions to establish a baseline for assessing mission achievement. An OATSD/PA official stated that the Navy will use this tool going forward to measure the success of their events, audiences targeted, and which mission(s) the events support, and to summarize the overall return on investment for its bands. Further, the OATSD/PA official stated that the Navy has established a measurable target that each band event addresses at least one of the National Defense Strategy's three lines of efforts and at least one of the four band missions. As a result, we have closed this recommendation as implemented.
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| Department of the Army | To help ensure that each service can provide information to decision makers as they assess the value of the military bands relative to resource demands for other priorities, the Secretaries of the Army, Navy, and Air Force, and the Commandant of the Marine Corps should direct the Chief of Army Music, Commanding Officer of the U.S. Navy Band, Chief of the Air Force Bands Division, and Director of Marine Corps Communications, respectively, each to develop and implement measurable objectives and performance measures for their respective services' bands. At a minimum, these measures should include the important attributes for successful performance measures of demonstrating linkage to the program's mission, establishing a baseline, and having measurable targets to demonstrate program performance. |
DOD concurred with our recommendation. The Office of the Assistant to the Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs (OATSD/PA) incorporated standard performance criteria in its Department of Defense Fiscal Year 2018 Strategic Public Affairs Outreach Activities Plan to assist the military services with developing and implementing measurable objectives and performance measures. In addition, OATSD/PA, in consultation with the Army and the other services, developed and implemented a tool to track the extent to which the bands' events meet the bands' missions of enhancing public confidence and patriotism among the American people; perpetuating service identity, traditions, and morale; promoting the national interests (and reassurance of allies) at home and abroad; and supporting the commander's top priority. From April 1, 2018, through September 30, 2018, the Army collected and analyzed data on the number of events that addressed these different missions to establish a baseline for assessing mission achievement. An OATSD/PA official stated that the Army will use this tool going forward to measure the success of their events, audiences targeted, and which mission(s) the events support, and to summarize the overall return on investment for its bands. Further, the OATSD/PA official stated that the Army has established a measurable target that each band event addresses at least one of the National Defense Strategy's three lines of efforts and at least one of the four band missions. As a result, we have closed this recommendation as implemented.
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