Military Personnel: DOD Lacks Reliable Personnel Tempo Data and Needs Quality Controls to Improve Data Accuracy
Highlights
Congress has repeatedly expressed concerns about the pace of military operations and 10 U.S.C. 487 requires that the Department of Defense (DOD) annually report on personnel tempo--the time servicemembers spend away from home. Section 345 of the John Warner National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2007 directed GAO to report on a number of Army and Marine Corps issues. For this report GAO addresses the extent to which (1) changes in mobilization and deployment policies have affected reserve component availability and provided an approach to meet the requirements for the global war on terrorism; and, (2) DOD, the Army, and the Marine Corps have collected, maintained, and reported complete and accurate personnel tempo data. To address these objectives, GAO analyzed data from DOD's Personnel Tempo and Contingency Tracking System databases, and interviewed agency officials.
Recommendations
Recommendations for Executive Action
| Agency Affected | Recommendation | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Department of Defense | To improve the accuracy and comprehensiveness of the personnel tempo data that DOD reports to Congress and the President, the Secretary of Defense should direct the Undersecretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness to provide guidance which directs the Army and Marine Corps to develop quality control procedures for validating the accuracy of the personnel tempo data they collect and report to Defense Manpower Data Center, whether under the existing personnel tempo definition or under any revised definitions that Congress may approve. |
Closed – Not Implemented
Following the issuance of our report, on July 28, 2009, the Undersecretary of Defense (Personnel and Readiness)issued DOD Instruction 1336.07 "Reporting of Personnel Tempo Events". While the instruction noted that "The Military Service is responsible for the accuracy and completeness of each electronic data transfer." the instruction directed "the Director, Defense Human Resources Activity...maintain the PERSTEMPO events database and provide data quality control analysis and reporting... through the Director of the Defense Manpower Data Center (DMDC)" and it did not direct the services to develop quality control procedures for validating the accuracy of the personnel data they collect and report to DMDC, as we recommended.
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