Coast Guard: Station Readiness Improving, but Resource Challenges and Management Concerns Remain

In January 2005 GAO recommended, among other things, that the Coast Guard revise the Boat Forces Strategic Plan to reflect the impact of homeland security requirements on station needs and to identify specific actions, milestones, and funding needs for meeting those requirements. In response to GAO's recommendation, the Coast Guard revised its Boat Forces Strategic Plan to reflect a strategic approach for determining requirements, assigning human capital, and measuring performance. The Strategic Plan states that the goals and initiatives outlined in this plan are captured in the Office of Boat Forces Business Plan. GAO reviewed the business plan and found that it describes the process used by the Office of Boat Forces to align its efforts with the Boat Forces Strategic Plan and to provide the required capabilities for the office to meet its mission requirements. Though GAO reviewed the business plan and strategic plan, we did not review the extent to which the Coast Guard is carrying out processes described in these plans. The business plan outlines the Office of Boat Forces mission requirements, including homeland security requirements, along with specific strategic initiatives (explaining what needs to be done) and milestones (explaining key steps for how it will be done). The Coast Guard stated via email that specific funding information is not provided in the business plan, as that data would become quickly dated. However, the business plan does indicate several potential sources of funding to meet the goals outlined in the plan and that the Office of Boat Forces will economically execute the Boat Forces Spend Plan.

In January 2005 GAO recommended, among other things, that the Coast Guard develop measurable annual goals for stations. In response to GAO's recommendation, the Coast Guard has prepared a business plan for the Office of Boat Forces. This plan describes strategic goals, objectives, and initiatives, and the categories of measures and specific performance measures that the office will use to assess progress in meeting strategic objectives and initiatives. It also describes how the Coast Guard intends to analyze the measures. Specifically, the Coast Guard organizes measures into the categories of Performance, Effort, Readiness, and Progress. Examples of performance measures within those categories include "injuries per boat hour," "mishaps per boat hour," and "program boat hours versus mission-required boat hours." The performance measures in turn inform readiness measures (which are human capital capacity; capability capacity; and consumption of capacity) that inform and are informed by mission requirements. We did not review specific targets for any of the performance measures or determine the extent to which the Coast Guard was meeting its targets. The Coast Guard also reported in its revised Boat Forces Strategic Plan that the Office of Boat Forces developed a new system to track specific actions, tasks, and funding requirements that will be linked to milestones, initiatives, objectives, and goals. The plan further states that the format of this system is designed to meet the intent of Congress, address GAO and other oversight-agency recommendations, and provide a planned sequence of initiatives to execute.

In January 2005 GAO recommended, among other things, that the Coast Guard revise the processes and practices for estimating and allocating station Personal Protection Equipment (PPE) funds to reliably identify annual funding needs and use this information in making future funding decisions. The Coast Guard has taken several actions to address this recommendation. First, according to officials, to address potential shortages of PPE at stations, the Coast Guard allocates PPE funds based on the number of designated positions at stations. Each station is funded for PPE purchase, repair, and replacement based on the number of its designated positions. Further, personnel are required to take their PPE with them when they transfer to another station. Second, although PPE needs for personnel temporarily assigned to stations are not automatically identified, if stations use all of their PPE funding and need additional funding, they can request this through "end-of-year" funding accounts. According to officials, requests for end-of year monies to fund PPE receive high priority. Third, Coast Guard officials said the agency has developed an object code to track expenditures for PPE purchase, repair, and replacement. Individual stations also maintain their own records to track PPE purchases and replacement. Fourth, third-party teams annually audit the PPE gear assigned to station personnel. Fifth, in fiscal year 2009 the Coast Guard began issuing PPE to students at the Boatswain's Mate A school prior to their assignment at a station. Further, to measure discrepancies between required and funded levels of PPE, the Coast Guard has identified the performance measure "PPE Funded versus PPE Required" in the Boat Forces Strategic Plan and Office of Boat Forces Business Plan as a metric within the goal area of Capabilities.