The Missile Defense Agency (MDA) is developing a system to defend the U.S. from long-range missile attacks. As MDA continues to develop this system, called Ground-based Midcourse Defense (GMD), it has opportunities to incorporate into its approach lessons learned from over 2 decades of system development. MDA has made progress in developing and fielding elements of the GMD system. For example, MD

The Department of Defense (DOD) continues to face financial management issues and challenges that have prevented it from obtaining a clean audit opinion on the fair presentation of its financial statements. Specifically, financial statement auditors issued disclaimers of opinion on DOD's and the military services' fiscal year 2018 and 2019 financial statements. These disclaimers resulted from num

In its effort to modernize weapon systems capabilities, the Army increasingly uses alternative agreements instead of Federal Acquisition Regulation-based contracts for research and development and has expanded the use of alternative approaches that engage industry and academia. The Army's use of these agreements and approaches provides flexibilities and reduces barriers to creating new partnershi

The Department of Veterans Affairs' (VA) Medical-Surgical Prime Vendor-Next Generation (MSPV-NG) program is intended to provide an efficient, cost-effective way for its 170 medical centers to order supplies. But only 11 percent of these centers met VA's target of using the MSPV-NG formulary—the list of supplies offered—for 90 percent of medical supply purchases. GAO met with 12 medical center

In fiscal year 2019, many agencies that participate in the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) programs were not consistently on time in notifying awardees or issuing awards, similar to fiscal years 2016 through 2018, which GAO previously reviewed. For notification, 15 of the 29 participating agencies met the timeliness requirement (90 calendar

Data supporting the Department of Defense's (DOD) fiscal year 2019 financial statements are not reliable, according to the DOD Office of Inspector General (OIG) and independent auditors. In January 2020, the OIG reported that the department had wide-ranging weaknesses in its financial management systems that prevented it from collecting and reporting financial and performance information that was

What is it? Agile is an approach to software development that encourages collaboration across an organization and allows requirements to evolve as a program progresses. Agile software development emphasizes iterative delivery; that is, the development of software in short, incremental stages. Customers continuously provide feedback on the software's functionality and quality. By engaging customer

From September 28, 2020 through September 27, 2021, GAO is seeking input and feedback on this Exposure Draft from all interested parties. Please click on this link https://tell.gao.gov/agileguide to provide us with comment on the Guide. The U.S. Government Accountability Office is responsible for, among other things, assisting Congress in its oversight of the executive branch, including assessing

The six Intelligence Community (IC)-element Offices of Inspectors General (OIG) that GAO reviewed collectively received 5,794 complaints from October 1, 2016, through September 30, 2018, and opened 960 investigations based on those complaints. Of the 960 investigations, IC-element OIGs had closed 873 (about 91 percent) as of August 2019, with an average case time ranging from 113 to 410 days to c

Federal entities have a variety of roles and responsibilities for supporting efforts to enhance the cybersecurity of the nation. Among other things, 23 federal entities have roles and responsibilities for developing policies, monitoring critical infrastructure protection efforts, sharing information to enhance cybersecurity across the nation, responding to cyber incidents, investigating cyberatta