GAO reviewed the Department of Defense's (DOD) Project Transition at the five military installations with the longest experience in the program to obtain information on the administration of the program and to identify areas where corrective action could reduce costs or improve its effectiveness.

GAO noted that: (1) the Transition project needs certain improvements if the objectives as outlined by DOD are to be attained; (2) many enlisted personnel eligible to participate in the program were not identified during their last 6 months of service; (3) many others identified as eligible were not contacted to determine if they wanted to participate; (4) a large number of career plans questionnaires, which had been given to eligible servicemen, were not returned to the local Transition office; (5) DOD considers counseling to be the keystone to the Transition program; (6) however, at three installations, the counselors did not have available a description of the courses offered by the program nor adequate current information on available jobs; (7) in many instances, counselors were keeping inadequate records of the assistance given to each serviceman; (8) in some instances, the criteria used for determining needed training courses were inadequate; (9) program evaluation could not be accurately performed because of incomplete, inaccurate, or nonexistent training records; (10) prerequisite admission standards for courses were not always followed either; (11) other deficiencies were noted in accounting for costs and in recordkeeping and reporting procedures; (12) inadequacies were found in the follow-up evaluation of the program; (13) GAO mailed 519 questionnaires to recently separated servicemen who had taken Transition training; and (14) about 31 percent of the 274 responses indicated employment in skills related to training received under Transition.