National Transportation Safety Board: Preliminary Observations on the Value of Comprehensive Planning, and Greater Use of Leading Practices and the Training Academy
GAO-06-801T
Published: May 24, 2006. Publicly Released: May 24, 2006.
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Highlights
The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) is a relatively small agency that plays a vital role in transportation safety and has a worldwide reputation for investigating accidents. With a staff of about 400 and a budget of $76.7 million in fiscal year 2006, NTSB investigates all civil aviation accidents in the United States, and significant accidents in railroad, highway, marine, and pipeline; and issues safety recommendations to address issues identified during accident investigations. To support its mission, NTSB built a training academy, which opened in 2003 and provides training to NTSB investigators and others. It is important that NTSB use its resources efficiently to carry out its mission and maintain its preeminence. This testimony, based on ongoing work for this committee, addresses the extent to which NTSB follows leading practices in selected management areas, addresses challenges in completing accident investigations and closing safety recommendations, and generates sufficient revenues to cover costs at its academy.
Recommendations
Recommendations for Executive Action
| Agency Affected | Recommendation | Status |
|---|---|---|
| National Transportation Safety Board | To improve agency performance in the key functional management areas of strategic planning, human capital planning, financial management, and communications, the Chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board should improve strategic planning by developing a revised strategic plan that follows performance-based practices; developing a strategic training plan that is aligned with the revised strategic plan and identifies skill gaps that pose obstacles to meeting the agency's strategic goals and curriculum that would eliminate these gaps; and aligning their organizational structure to implement the strategic plan and eliminate unnecessary management layers. | In 2006, GAO found that the National Transportation Safety Board's (NTSB) strategic plan, issued in December 2005 for the years 2006 through 2010, generally did not follow performance-based strategic planning requirements in the Government Performance and Results Act of 1993 (GPRA) and related guidance in the Office of Management and Budget's Circular A-11. GAO also found that NTSB had neither developed a strategic training plan, nor had it identified the core competencies needed to support its mission and a curriculum to develop those competencies, all of which are considered leading practices in training. Further, GAO found that NTSB's agencywide staffing plan lacked a workforce... deployment strategy that considered the organizational structure and its balance of supervisory and nonsupervisory positions. GAO recommended that NTSB improve strategic planning by (1) developing a revised strategic plan that follows performance-based practices; (2) developing a strategic training plan that is aligned with the revised strategic plan and (3) identifies skill gaps that pose obstacles to meeting the agency's strategic goals and (4) curriculum that would eliminate these gaps; and (5) aligning their organization structure to implement the strategic plan and (6) eliminate unnecessary management layers. NTSB has taken actions, which were verified in 2013, in response to GAO's recommendations. (1) In October 2012, NTSB issued its strategic plan for fiscal years 2013 through 2016, which incorporated a number of GPRA performance-based requirements that had been missing from the plan issued in 2005. For example, the 2012 plan included strategies to achieve goals and objectives and sought external stakeholder comments on the plan, both of which had been missing from the 2005 plan. A comprehensive strategic plan allows the agency to align staffing, training, or other human resource management to its strategic goals and align its organizational structure and layers of management with the plan. (2) NTSB's December 2011 Strategic Training and Development Plan is aligned with its strategic plan. For example, every NTSB employee was required to complete an individual development plan that relates their proposed training to the agency's strategic objectives and to work with their supervisors in establishing priorities. The plan also described the agency's steps to identify skill gaps and a curriculum to eliminate these gaps. (3) For example, the plan identified competency gaps for the investigator workforce through discussions with managers in technical offices and through online self-assessments. (4) The plan also identified over 20 courses that are provided to individuals in mission-critical occupations to close the competency gaps. Having a strategic training plan that is aligned with the agency's strategic plan and identifies and closes skill gaps enables NTSB to have assurance that the courses that agency staff take provide the technical knowledge and skills necessary for them to be competent for the type of work they perform. (5) NTSB's office operating plans describe how each office serves NTSB's mission as defined in its mission statement. The operating plans align their offices' respective performance objectives, and actions addressing such objectives to strategic goals in NTSB's strategic plan. (6) The agency has also taken steps to eliminate unnecessary management layers by realigning the operations at 10 regional offices in the Office of Aviation Safety into four regions. This action simplified its reporting structure and made available a larger pool of accident investigators per region. Such actions to align the organization's structure to implement the strategic plan and eliminate unnecessary management layers will help NTSB to avoid excess organizational layers and to properly balance supervisory and nonsupervisory positions.
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| National Transportation Safety Board | To improve agency performance in the key functional management areas of strategic planning, human capital planning, financial management, and communications, the Chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board should develop a full cost-accounting system that would track the amount of time employees spend on each investigation and in training. | In 2006, we found that NTSB lacked a full cost accounting system, which would inform managers of the resources spent on individual investigations and provide data to balance office workload. As a result, NTSB managers had little information they could use to plan the utilization of staff resources or manage staff workloads properly. We recommended that NTSB develop a full cost accounting system that would track the amount of time employees spend on each investigation and in training. In fiscal year 2012, we verified that NTSB substantially completed this recommendation by implementing an accounting system that tracks the amount of time and dollars that employees spend on each...
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| National Transportation Safety Board | To improve agency performance in the key functional management areas of strategic planning, human capital planning, financial management, and communications, the Chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board should develop mechanisms that will facilitate communications from staff-level employees to senior management, including consideration of contracting out a confidential employee survey to obtain employee feedback on management initiatives. | In May 2006, we found that the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) had taken positive steps to improve communications from senior management to staff; however, the agency lacked upward communications mechanisms-such as town hall meetings, regular staff meetings, and confidential employee surveys-which are central to forming effective partnerships within the organization. To improve agency communications, we recommended that NTSB develop mechanisms that will facilitate communication from staff level employees to senior management, including consideration of contracting out a confidential employee survey to obtain feedback on management initiatives. NTSB management officials have...
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| National Transportation Safety Board | To enhance the efficiency of the report development and recommendation close-out processes, the Chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board should identify better practices in the agency and apply them to all modes. Consider such things as using project managers or deputy investigators-in-charge in all modes, using incentives to encourage performance in report development, and examining the layers of review to find ways to streamline the process, such as eliminating some levels of review and using concurrent reviews as appropriate. | In 2006, we found that the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) developed a draft agencywide staffing plan in December 2005 that followed several leading practices in workforce planning but lacked other leading practices such as a workforce deployment strategy that considers the organizational structure and its balance of supervisory and nonsupervisory positions. We recommended NTSB eliminate any unnecessary management layers. In response, NTSB has eliminated unnecessary management layers. For example, to streamline the management structure in the Office of Aviation Safety, in 2008 NTSB realigned the operations from 10 regional offices into four regions, simplifying the reporting...
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| National Transportation Safety Board | To enhance the efficiency of the report development and recommendation close-out processes, the Chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board should improve the efficiency of the review process for changing the status of recommendations by computerizing the documentation and implementing concurrent reviews. | In 2006, we found that the process that NTSB uses to change the status of or close out safety recommendations is paper-based, labor intensive and relies on a series of sequential reviews that could take months to complete. As a result, NTSB was delayed in communicating with (1) agencies on whether NTSB considered the actions that have been taken to address the recommendation are sufficient to accept the recommendation, and (2) DOT for its annual report to Congress on the status of implementing NTSB's recommendations. We recommended that NTSB improve the efficiency of the review process for changing the status of recommendations by computerizing the documentation and implementing...
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| National Transportation Safety Board | To enhance the utilization of the academy and improve the ability to generate revenues that will cover academy costs, the Chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board should develop a comprehensive marketing plan for the academy. The plan should consider such things as outreach to potential users, working with the Department of Agriculture and the General Services Administration to market it as classroom and conference space, and conducting market research for additional curriculum development. If ethical and conflict-of-interest issues can be addressed, the plan should also consider options for allowing transportation manufacturers to conduct company-sponsored symposia and technical training at the academy facility, which would benefit NTSB investigators in keeping up with new technologies. In addition the plan should consider the feasibility of subleasing a portion of the academy space. | In 2006, we found that National Transportation Safety Board's (NTSB) training center was not cost-effective, as the combination of the training center's revenues and external training costs avoided by NTSB staff's use of the facility did not cover the center's costs. As a result, those portions of the training center's costs that were not covered by the revenues from tuition and other sources (approximately $6.3 million in fiscal year 2004 and $3.9 million in fiscal year 2005) were offset by general appropriations to the agency. We recommended that NTSB develop a business plan and a marketing plan to increase utilization of the training center or vacate its training center. NTSB has...
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| National Transportation Safety Board | To enhance the utilization of the academy and improve the ability to generate revenues that will cover academy costs, the Chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board should develop core investigator curriculum for each mode and maximize the delivery of that training at the academy. | In 2006, we found that the National Transportation Safety Board's (NTSB) training center was underutilized, with less than 10 percent of the available classroom capacity being used during fiscal years 2005 and 2006. This contributed to the training center not being cost-effective, as the combination of the training center's revenues and external training costs avoided by NTSB staff's use of the facility did not cover the center's costs. We recommended that NTSB maximize the delivery of core investigator curriculum at its training center. NTSB implemented the intent of our recommendation to maximize the delivery of its core investigator curriculum at the Training Center by increasing the...
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| National Transportation Safety Board | To enhance the utilization of the academy and improve the ability to generate revenues that will cover academy costs, the Chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board should conduct a study to determine the costs and feasibility of moving certain functions from headquarters to the academy facility in preparation for the renegotiation of the headquarters lease, which expires in 2011. | In May 2006, we found that the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) is not precluded by its training center lease or its headquarters space in Washington, D.C., from relocating some headquarters staff to the Virginia facility. As such, we recommended that NTSB conduct a study to determine the costs and feasibility of moving certain functions from the agency's headquarters to their academy facility in preparation for the renegotiation of the headquarters lease, which expires in 2011. By July 2008, NTSB's managing director consulted with the agency's senior leadership to discuss the issue of moving additional functions to the training center. Input from management was analyzed, and...
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Agency missionsBest practicesBest practices methodologyEducation or training costsEmployee trainingFinancial managementInvestigations by federal agenciesPerformance managementStrategic planningTransportation safety