Prepositioned Stocks: DOD Needs Joint Oversight of the Military Services' Programs
Fast Facts
The military services keep everything from rations to tanks at strategic locations around the world. Positioning supplies in advance can allow action without waiting for cargo to arrive.
Since 2005, we have found potential problems in the prepositioned stocks programs, which each service manages separately. DOD has fallen short of requirements to synchronize program management, and risks duplication of effort and inefficiency.
We found the services continue to manage the programs with little joint oversight.
We made 6 recommendations, including that DOD fully implement joint oversight of the programs and update Congress on its progress.
A ship that carries Marine Corps prepositioning stocks
This photo shows a docked ship.
Highlights
What GAO Found
The Department of Defense's (DOD) implementation plan for managing the military services' prepositioned stock programs does not fully address four of the seven elements required by the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for Fiscal Year 2014. For example, DOD's plan did not include all information required by the NDAA, such as a complete list of the services' programs, information on how DOD would pursue key initiatives, or the resources required to implement the plan. DOD officials told GAO that they developed a plan without detail to allow the services to determine for themselves how to implement their programs. However, absent an implementation plan that fully addresses NDAA requirements, DOD continues to provide incomplete information to Congress on the department's prepositioned stock programs.
Since 2011 when Congress required DOD to take action and since 2005 when GAO first reported on the issue, DOD has not fully implemented a joint oversight approach for managing prepositioned stock programs (see figure).
Congressional Requirements and GAO Reporting Related to DOD's Limited Progress with the Joint Oversight of Prepositioned Stock Programs
DOD's recent approach for implementing joint oversight has been to update guidance documents and develop other efforts, such as a working group, but the services continue to manage their programs with little joint oversight. Without taking steps to fully implement joint oversight, including providing detailed information on how to achieve this in guidance and reviewing other efforts, DOD's management will continue to be fragmented and it risks duplication and inefficiencies among the services' programs. Moreover, updating Congress on DOD's progress would help assure decision makers that DOD intends to follow their direction in establishing joint oversight of prepositioned stock programs.
Why GAO Did This Study
The military services preposition stocks worth billions of dollars at strategic locations around the world to provide U.S. forces with critical assets before supply chains have been established. In the 2018 National Defense Strategy, DOD emphasized that prepositioned stocks provide key logistical support for the department's missions. For many years, GAO has identified the potential for duplication among the military services' prepositioned stock programs due to a fragmented management approach and limited joint oversight within DOD.
In the NDAA for Fiscal Year 2014, Congress required DOD to develop an implementation plan to manage prepositioned stock programs. DOD finalized its plan in August 2017. The act included a provision for GAO to review the plan and report on related issues. GAO assessed the extent to which (1) DOD's implementation plan addresses mandated reporting elements and (2) DOD has made progress in implementing a joint oversight approach for managing the services' prepositioned stock programs.
GAO compared the implementation plan and DOD's joint oversight approach with congressional requirements and federal standards for internal control and interviewed DOD officials.
Recommendations
GAO is making six recommendations, including that DOD provide information required by the NDAA, fully implement joint oversight of prepositioned stock programs, and update Congress on progress made. DOD concurred with all of the recommendations.
Recommendations for Executive Action
| Agency Affected | Recommendation | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Department of Defense | The Secretary of Defense should ensure that the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Sustainment, in coordination with the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, issue a more detailed implementation plan or include implementation plan details in identified formal department-wide guidance to include an updated list to provide quality information, including all of DOD's prepositioned materiel and equipment programs. (Recommendation 1) |
DOD concurred with this recommendation. On February 25, 2020, DOD issued its revised Pre-Positioned War Reserve Materiel Strategic Implementation Plan which includes an updated list of each military service's current prepositioned materiel and equipment programs. In addition, the revised plan includes an explanation that specific classes of supply are not managed as separate prepositioned materiel and equipment programs but are elements of the listed programs. These actions meet the intent of the recommendation of providing quality information.
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| Department of Defense | The Secretary of Defense should ensure that the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Sustainment, in coordination with the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, issue a more detailed implementation plan or include implementation plan details in identified formal department-wide guidance to include a detailed description of how DOD will implement the three key initiatives in the plan--policy, governance, and assessment--including clearly identifying what is to be achieved in these areas. (Recommendation 2) |
DOD concurred with this recommendation. On February 25, 2020, DOD issued its revised Pre-Positioned War Reserve Materiel Strategic Implementation Plan which includes a detailed description of how DOD will implement policy, governance, and assessment initiatives. For example, the plan provides information on concrete goals and how to achieve them, as well as who within the department is responsible for tracking and monitoring the execution of the plan, what they are required to measure to assess progress, and how often they are to assess the plan. This action meets the intent of the recommendation by describing how DOD will implement these three key initiatives.
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| Department of Defense | The Secretary of Defense should ensure that the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Sustainment, in coordination with the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, issue a more detailed implementation plan or include implementation plan details in identified formal department-wide guidance to include a description of the resources (i.e., relevant operational and financial information) required to implement the plan including dollar and personnel amounts. (Recommendation 3) |
DOD concurred with this recommendation. On February 25, 2020, DOD issued its revised Pre-Positioned War Reserve Materiel Strategic Implementation Plan. However, the updated plan did not include a description of the resources-- including dollar and personnel amounts--required to implement the plan. Instead, the updated plan states that no additional personnel or resources will be required to execute and manage the plan, and that those personnel executing and managing the plan are expected to do so in addition to their normal duties. In May 2020, DOD stated it intended to include additional information about the required resources in the plan's next revision. As of June 2021, DOD had not issued a revision to the Pre-Positioned War Reserve Materiel Strategic Implementation Plan. In December 2022, DOD estimated that it would issue the next iteration of the plan with this required resource information by May 31, 2023. In July 2023, DOD officials told us that there is no longer a need for an implementation plan because all of the actions in the 2020 plan have been addressed. Specifically, the actions have been operationalized in other forums and formats such as the Global Prepositioned Materiel Capabilities Working Group and the joint oversight reports derived from the single view web-based capability in the Defense Readiness Reporting System. DOD has shared classified joint oversight reports with us. The 2014 and 2020 National Defense Authorization Acts included the following requirement regarding DOD's implementation plan: "A description of the resources required to implement the plan, including the amount of funds and personnel." Since DOD no longer intends to issue a revised implementation plan, we are closing this recommendation as no longer valid.
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| Department of Defense | The Secretary of Defense should ensure that the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Sustainment, in coordination with the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, issue a more detailed implementation plan or include implementation plan details in identified formal department-wide guidance to include a description of how the department will review and assess the implementation plan for effectiveness. (Recommendation 4) |
DOD concurred with this recommendation. On February 25, 2020, DOD published its revised Pre-Positioned War Reserve Materiel Strategic Implementation Plan which describes an five step assessment cycle. Also, this new assessment cycle tasks the Global Pre-Positioned Materiel Capabilities Working Group with reviewing and assessing the plan annually This action meets the intent of the recommendation by describing how the department will review and assess the implementation plan for effectiveness.
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| Department of Defense | The Secretary of Defense should ensure that the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Sustainment, in coordination with the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, take steps to fully implement joint oversight of DODs prepositioned stock programs, including providing detailed information on how to implement such an oversight approach in department guidance and reviewing other joint oversight efforts, in order to synchronize the military services' preposition stock strategies to avoid fragmentation. (Recommendation 5) |
DOD agreed with GAO's January 2019 recommendation and has implemented it. In February 2020, DOD published its updated Pre-Positioned War Reserve Materiel Strategic Implementation Plan which lays out a method for joint oversight. In December 2021, DOD officials (1) completed a review of the information systems and data related to the military services' prepositioning programs and (2) decided to update the classified Defense Readiness Reporting System to provide a single view capability of information about the services' prepositioned programs. In 2022, DOD completed this single view web-based analytic capability to enable comprehensive prepositioning data collection and related reporting mechanism. In February 2023, DOD provided classified joint oversight reports containing various prepositioning data outputs from the single view capability. These actions meet the recommendation's intent and may help the department address its fragmented management approach of its prepositioned stock program.
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| Department of Defense | The Secretary of Defense should ensure that the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Sustainment, in coordination with the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, update Congress on the departments progress in joint oversight management in the prepositioned stock annual report or in a separate report. (Recommendation 6) |
DOD concurred with this recommendation. On February 25, 2020, the Department of Defense (DOD) issued its revised Pre-Positioned War Reserve Materiel Strategic Implementation Plan which details a Joint Oversight Framework. This framework describes the roles and responsibilities that multiple DOD stakeholders have over the prepositioned stocks programs, along with the related governance structure. On March 2, 2020, DOD submitted this plan to congressional oversight committees. This action meets the intent of the recommendation and will inform Congress on the department's progress in joint oversight management.
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