Force Structure: Army's Efforts to Improve Efficiency of Institutional Forces Have Produced Few Results

In response to the recommendation for corrective action, the Army completed the two subplans, and updated its material weakness plan with more realistic milestones. The Secretary of Defense's FY1998 Federal Manager's Financial Integrity Act (FMFIA) report reflects the revised milestones and cites GAO's follow-up audit as a reason for change.

The Army's Workload Performance System (AWPS) is a computer-based methodology for determining workload-based personnel requirements at the depots, arsenals, and ammunition plants. In GAO's report, Force Structure: Army's Efforts to Improve Efficiency of Institutional Forces Have Produced Few Results (GAO/NSIAD-98-65), GAO found that implementation of AWPS had been more difficult than the Army had estimated and that the Army had not developed specific steps or milestones to achieve program goals. To improve the Army's ability to accurately project institutional requirements derived from AWPS, GAO recommended that the Army develop a long-range master plan to implement AWPS, including milestones and definitions of corporate-level requirements. The Army now has an "AWPS Master Milestone Plan," with executive level AWPS tasks, and has certified that AWPS is fully operational for depot maintenance.

Beginning with Total Army Analysis (TAA) 2007, the Army's Strategic Management Plan has a goal of including TDA personnel (Tables of Distribution and Allowances) in the Total Army Analysis process in order for the Army to be more encompassing in its generation of requirements. To ensure an analytical basis for TDA requirements, commands were instructed to assess their organizations using the principles of the 12-step method. This should lead to more efficient organizations, better resourcing decisions in TAA, and opportunities to help the Army return uniform personnel to the operational Army.

Last year, GAO noted that while the Army had taken some action, GAO believed that more should be done to implement this recommendation. This year GAO finds that the Army has done more. In addition to publishing a final version of Pamphlet 100-1 (the Army's Redesign "vision" document), the Army's Strategic Management Plan now contain specific performance goals and indicators for redesign initiatives; the Army' Program Analysis and Evaluation organization is responsible for tracking results for the Assistant Vice Chief of Staff; and the Chief of Staff is to validate Plan goals annually.