Recommendation: The Under Secretary for Management should ensure that the Office of Program Accountability and Risk Management and component heads execute the Component Acquisition Executive nomination and designation process consistently, as described in its guidance. This should include nominating and designating Component Acquisition Executives to oversee all acquisition programs. (Recommendation 1)

Agency: Department of Homeland Security
Status: Open

Comments: When we confirm what actions the agency has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.

Recommendation: The Under Secretary for Management should ensure that the Component Acquisition Executives that are responsible for oversight of acquisition programs comply with Department of Homeland Security direction to complete Component Acquisition Executive support staffing plans. (Recommendation 2)

Agency: Department of Homeland Security
Status: Open

Comments: When we confirm what actions the agency has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.

Recommendation: The Under Secretary for Management should identify, in policy or guidance, the expertise that constitutes critical acquisition positions for effective Component Acquisition Executive oversight. (Recommendation 3)

Agency: Department of Homeland Security
Status: Open

Comments: When we confirm what actions the agency has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.

Recommendation: The Under Secretary for Management should direct the Office of Program Accountability and Risk Management to establish a time frame for completing its assessment of the Investment Evaluation, Submission, and Tracking (INVEST) system data fields for which the Component Acquisition Executive certification is necessary, based on current use and reporting requirements, and take appropriate actions based on the results. (Recommendation 4)

Agency: Department of Homeland Security
Status: Open

Comments: When we confirm what actions the agency has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.

Recommendation: The Secretary of Veterans Affairs should ensure the Executive Director of the Veterans Health Administration's Office of Procurement and Logistics, as part of the Veterans Health Administration's ongoing efforts to establish and maintain supplier agreements for the Medical-Surgical Prime Vendor 2.0 formulary, examines opportunities to reduce the number of items delivered via drop shipment to minimize less-preferred methods to purchase supplies. (Recommendation 1)

Agency: Department of Veterans Affairs
Status: Open

Comments: When we confirm what actions the agency has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.

Recommendation: The Secretary of Veterans Affairs should ensure the Executive Director of the Veterans Health Administration's Office of Procurement and Logistics, as part of the Veterans Health Administration's ongoing efforts to establish and maintain supplier agreements for the Medical-Surgical Prime Vendor 2.0 formulary, examines opportunities to establish delivery time frame requirements for drop-shipped items. (Recommendation 2)

Agency: Department of Veterans Affairs
Status: Open

Comments: When we confirm what actions the agency has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.

Recommendation: The Secretary of Veterans Affairs should ensure the Executive Director of the Veterans Health Administration's Office of Procurement and Logistics automates aspects of the manual Medical-Surgical Prime Vendor formulary management process where feasible, such as electronic transmittal of real-time updates to medical centers and prime vendors, to minimize ordering errors and delivery delays. (Recommendation 3)

Agency: Department of Veterans Affairs
Status: Open

Comments: When we confirm what actions the agency has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.

Recommendation: The Secretary of Veterans Affairs should ensure the Executive Director of the Veterans Health Administration's Office of Procurement and Logistics and the Strategic Acquisition Center develop processes to routinely use transaction-level data to validate prime vendor performance on key program metrics, such as order completion rate, and identify how this information will be used to oversee the prime vendors. (Recommendation 4)

Agency: Department of Veterans Affairs
Status: Open

Comments: When we confirm what actions the agency has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.

Recommendation: The Secretary of Veterans Affairs should ensure the Executive Director of the Veterans Health Administration's Office of Procurement and Logistics develops a process for calculating accurate historical coverage and utilization data for the Medical-Surgical Prime Vendor program, such as archiving monthly formulary snapshots, to increase visibility into medical center needs and issues over time. (Recommendation 5)

Agency: Department of Veterans Affairs
Status: Open

Comments: When we confirm what actions the agency has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.

Recommendation: The Secretary of Veterans Affairs should ensure the Executive Director of the Veterans Health Administration's Office of Procurement and Logistics develops a plan for assessing the results of the Defense Logistics Agency Medical-Surgical Prime Vendor pilot, including criteria for assessing pilot success and scalability, as well as performance metric targets, and use these criteria and metrics to inform the department's future decision on whether the program should be deployed to all medical centers. (Recommendation 6)

Agency: Department of Veterans Affairs
Status: Open

Comments: When we confirm what actions the agency has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.

Recommendation: The Secretary of Veterans Affairs should ensure the Executive Director of the Veterans Health Administration's Office of Procurement and Logistics seeks input from stakeholders within the agency, such as the Office of Small and Disadvantaged Business Utilization and medical center staff, on operation of the Defense Logistics Agency Medical-Surgical Prime Vendor pilot to help inform any needed improvements as the pilot progresses. (Recommendation 7)

Agency: Department of Veterans Affairs
Status: Open

Comments: When we confirm what actions the agency has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.

Recommendation: The Secretary of Veterans Affairs should ensure the Executive Director of the Veterans Health Administration's Office of Procurement and Logistics works with the Office of Small and Disadvantaged Business Utilization to provide written guidance to VA logistics officials at facilities participating in the Defense Logistics Agency Medical-Surgical Prime Vendor pilot program on how to prioritize veteran-owned small businesses when purchases are made through the pilot program, to achieve VA's goal of providing opportunities for these firms to participate in the pilot program. (Recommendation 8)

Agency: Department of Veterans Affairs
Status: Open

Comments: When we confirm what actions the agency has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.

Recommendation: The Commissioner of the Social Security Administration should ensure the Office of Acquisition and Grants, in consultation with the Chief Information Officer, revises relevant guidance to identify the role of contracting officials in the Agile software development process.

Agency: Social Security Administration
Status: Open

Comments: The Social Security Administration agreed with the recommendation but has not yet taken actions to implement it.

Recommendation: The Secretary of Veterans Affairs should ensure that the Associate Executive Director of VA's NAC puts controls in place to better ensure the completeness of vendor FSS sales reporting. (Recommendation 1)

Agency: Department of Veterans Affairs: Office of the Secretary
Status: Open

Comments: VA concurred with this recommendation and is taking steps to implement it. In August 2020, VA reported that it has taken steps to better ensure the completeness of vendor FSS sales reporting, including by conducting more active monitoring of the sales data submitted by vendors. These steps are ongoing, but NAC has reported a decrease in the number of FSS contractors not reporting sales.

Recommendation: The Secretary of Veterans Affairs should ensure that the Associate Executive Director of VA's NAC assesses data on the participation of and items and services offered by veteran-owned small businesses in NAC's FSS program, in order to determine whether their program is meeting the needs of VHA contracting officers who use it given the Veterans First requirements they must meet. (Recommendation 2)

Agency: Department of Veterans Affairs: Office of the Secretary
Status: Open

Comments: VA concurred with this recommendation and is taking steps to implement it. In August 2020, VA reported that NAC has conducted additional outreach to veteran-owned small businesses regarding FSS participation, and plans to conduct analysis of these businesses' participation in FSS by the end of fiscal year 2020.

Recommendation: The Secretary of Veterans Affairs should ensure that the Associate Executive Director of VA's NAC directs the FSS Director to develop a mechanism to consistently obtain and analyze VHA user feedback on the FSS program. (Recommendation 3)

Agency: Department of Veterans Affairs: Office of the Secretary
Status: Open

Comments: VA concurred with this recommendation and has taken several actions to more consistently obtain VHA user feedback on the FSS program, including holding meetings with each VHA regional contracting office and participating in VHA integrated project teams and other recurring meetings. We have requested documentation of these activities, but VA has yet to provide it.

Recommendation: The Secretary of Veterans Affairs should ensure that the Associate Executive Director of VA's NAC provides FSS contracting staff with comprehensive FSS guidance. (Recommendation 4)

Agency: Department of Veterans Affairs: Office of the Secretary
Status: Open

Comments: VA concurred with this recommendation and NAC reported in August 2020 that it has taken steps to make existing guidance on the FSS program more accessible to FSS contracting staff. We have requested more documentation from VA to confirm that the guidance is comprehensive.

Recommendation: The Secretary of Veterans Affairs should ensure that the Associate Executive Director of VA's NAC develops an FSS-specific training program to include essential skills and processes to meet ongoing training needs for new and existing contracting staff. (Recommendation 5)

Agency: Department of Veterans Affairs: Office of the Secretary
Status: Open

Comments: VA concurred with this recommendation and NAC reported in August 2020 that it has implemented additional introductory training for new FSS contracting staff, as well as quarterly training events for all FSS contracting staff. We have requested additional documentation from VA on the content of the quarterly training.

Recommendation: The Administrator of GSA should work with the Secretary of VA to develop a memorandum of understanding outlining the roles and responsibilities of GSA and NAC for collaborating under GSA's delegation of authority to VA for the healthcare-related Federal Supply Schedules, including the processes through which the two organizations will coordinate and share useful tools and practices. (Recommendation 6)

Agency: General Services Administration: Office of the Administrator
Status: Open

Comments: GSA concurred with this recommendation. In August 2020, GSA stated that it has met with VA and agreed to develop an interagency memorandum of understanding by December 2020.

Recommendation: The Secretary of Veterans Affairs should work with the Administrator of GSA to develop a memorandum of understanding outlining the roles and responsibilities of GSA and NAC in collaborating under GSA's delegation of authority to VA for the healthcare-related Federal Supply Schedules, including the processes through which the two organizations will coordinate and share useful tools and practices. (Recommendation 7)

Agency: Department of Veterans Affairs: Office of the Secretary
Status: Open

Comments: VA concurred with this recommendation. In August 2020, GSA stated that it has met with VA and agreed to develop an interagency memorandum of understanding by December 2020.

Recommendation: The Administrator of GSA should take steps to document its delegation of authority for the healthcare-related Federal Supply Schedules to VA. (Recommendation 8)

Agency: General Services Administration: Office of the Administrator
Status: Open

Comments: GSA concurred with this recommendation. In August 2020, GSA stated that it is working to develop updated delegation of authority and will provide further details by December 2020.

Recommendation: The Secretary of Veterans Affairs should ensure that the Associate Executive Director of VA's NAC assesses the appropriateness of NAC's current timeliness goals for FSS contract awards and takes steps to comprehensively identify and address barriers to achieving them. (Recommendation 9)

Agency: Department of Veterans Affairs: Office of the Secretary
Status: Open

Comments: VA concurred with this recommendation. In August 2020, VA reported that NAC has confirmed that existing timeliness goals are appropriate, and that NAC officials meet on a quarterly basis to discuss barriers to meeting these goals. We have requested more detail from NAC on the barriers they have identified and steps they are taking to address them so that we can assess whether they are comprehensive.

Recommendation: The Secretary of Veterans Affairs should ensure that the Associate Executive Director of VA's National Acquisition Center takes measures to ensure greater efficiency in the offer-intake process, such as providing additional guidance for vendors or by adopting a system that includes checks for completeness of required vendor documentation. (Recommendation 10)

Agency: Department of Veterans Affairs: Office of the Secretary
Status: Open

Comments: VA concurred with this recommendation. In August 2020, VA reported that NAC has developed a checklist for assessing the completeness of submitted offers, and that new offers are currently processed in an average of two days. NAC is considering adoption of an automated offer intake system. We have requested additional details from NAC on the recent average offer processing time.

Recommendation: The Secretary of Veterans Affairs should take steps to assess duplication between VA's FSS and MSPV programs, to determine if this duplication is necessary or if efficiencies can be gained. (Recommendation 11)

Agency: Department of Veterans Affairs: Office of the Secretary
Status: Open
Priority recommendation

Comments: VA concurred with this recommendation. In August 2020, VA stated that it is analyzing duplication of contracting across the department as part of its Category Management efforts, and expects to complete an internal report on this issue in early 2021.

Recommendation: The Secretary of Homeland Security should ensure that the Undersecretary for Management develops an oversight process to confirm that programs' schedule goals are developed and updated in accordance with GAO's Schedule Assessment Guide, to include ensuring traceability between APB schedule goals and IMSs. (Recommendation 1)

Agency: Department of Homeland Security: Office of the Secretary
Status: Open

Comments: In providing comments on this report, DHS concurred with our recommendation and stated that the Management Directorate's Office of Program Accountability and Risk Management (PARM) developed a checklist based on GAO's Schedule Assessment Guide, among other things, to evaluate programs' IMSs. PARM also plans to develop guidance on schedules which is intended to assist the Component Acquisition Executives (CAE) and acquisition program staff responsible for building IMSs and APBs. In July 2020, PARM officials reported that the schedule checklist was already being used to evaluate and ensure program IMSs adhered to GAO's Schedule Assessment Guide. In addition, PARM officials are updating and drafting guidance on schedules to assist CAEs and program staff when building IMSs and APBs. As of July 2020, PARM was still in the process of executing these efforts.

Recommendation: The Secretary of Homeland Security should ensure that the Undersecretary for Management revises the schedule development guidance in the Systems Engineering Life Cycle Guidebook to state clearly that an IMS should be used as the basis for APB schedule goals. (Recommendation 2)

Agency: Department of Homeland Security: Office of the Secretary
Status: Open

Comments: DHS concurred with our recommendation and stated that Management Directorate's Office of Program Accountability and Risk Management (PARM) was in the process of revising the Systems Engineering Life Cycle Guidebook and would clarify the language relating to IMSs to ensure guidance is consistent. As of July 2020, PARM was still in the process of revising the Systems Engineering Life Cycle Guidebook.

Recommendation: The Secretary for Homeland Security should direct the Director of OTE to revise T&E policy or guidance as necessary to fully meet the key practice for programs to test that components and subsystems work together as a system in a controlled setting before finalizing a system's design. (Recommendation 1)

Agency: Department of Homeland Security
Status: Open

Comments: In providing comments on this report DHS concurred with our recommendation and stated that it planned to update its T&E policy to specify that acquisition programs demonstrate that components and subsystems work together before finalizing a system's design. In July 2020, DHS Test and Evaluation Division (TED) officials said they were in the process of updating the policy and that it was undergoing management review with an anticipated completion in fall 2020. Once finalized, GAO will evaluate the revised policy to determine whether DHS has met the intent of this recommendation.

Recommendation: The Secretary for Homeland Security should direct the Director of OTE, in coordination with OCPO, to develop an assessment process-including establishing performance measures-to help ensure T&E training achieves desired results. (Recommendation 2)

Agency: Department of Homeland Security
Status: Open

Comments: In providing comments on this report, DHS concurred with our recommendation and stated that it planned to assess the knowledge and skill requirements for the T&E workforce and establish performance goals for the training. DHS Test and Evaluation Division (TED), in coordination with OCPO, also plan to develop strategies to address any deficiencies with the current training that do not meet the identified requirements. In April 2020, TED officials said that they developed a new survey process to obtain recurring feedback from participants on the training's impact on their ability to perform T&E duties as assigned over time to inform the annual review of the T&E curriculum. However, this effort is still in a piloting stage so the extent to which this information is used to assess the training is still unknown at this time. As of July 2020, TED was still in the process of executing these efforts.

Recommendation: The Secretary for Homeland Security should direct the Director of OTE to revise T&E policy or guidance as necessary to specify when in the acquisition life cycle a major acquisition program manager should designate a level III certified T&E manager. (Recommendation 3)

Agency: Department of Homeland Security
Status: Open

Comments: In providing comments on this report DHS concurred with our recommendation and stated that it planned to update its T&E policy to specify when in the acquisition lifecycle acquisition program managers should designate a qualified T&E manager. In July 2020, DHS Test and Evaluation Division (TED) officials said they were in the process of revising the policy to include this specification and that it was undergoing management review with an anticipated completion in fall 2020. Once finalized, GAO will evaluate the revised policy to determine whether DHS has met the intent of this recommendation.

Recommendation: The Secretary for Homeland Security should direct the Director of OTE to establish an internal control process to ensure that data collected and maintained on major acquisition programs' T&E managers are reliable. (Recommendation 4)

Agency: Department of Homeland Security
Status: Open

Comments: In providing comments on this report, DHS concurred with our recommendation and stated that it planned to establish an internal control process to reliably collect and maintain data on acquisition programs' assigned test and evaluation managers. In April 2020, DHS Test and Evaluation Division (TED) reported taking steps to ensure the validity of this data including establishing points of contacts within each component to cross-check collected information for accuracy and having the Director review collected data on a quarterly basis beginning in third quarter fiscal year 2020. As of July 2020, TED was still in the process of improving its internal collection process, but had not completed these efforts.

Recommendation: The Secretary for Homeland Security should direct the Under Secretary for Science and Technology to assess OTE's workforce to ascertain the extent to which it has the appropriate number of staff with the necessary skills to fulfill its responsibilities. (Recommendation 5)

Agency: Department of Homeland Security
Status: Open

Comments: In providing comments on this report, DHS concurred with our recommendation and stated that it planned to assess the Test and Evaluation Division's (TED) workforce by reviewing current staffing levels and vacancies against the division's roles and responsibilities. The Senior Official Performing the Duties of the Under Secretary for Science and Technology plans to use the results of this review to inform strategic hiring in future years, if needed. In February 2020, DHS released its fiscal year 2020 strategic guidance memorandum for the Science and Technology (S&T) Directorate which included a statement pertaining to resourcing S&T's test and evaluation capabilities. However, as of July 2020, S&T had not yet conducted its review of TED's workforce.

Recommendation: The Secretary of the Navy should direct NAVSEA to incorporate current cost and program data and an updated cost risk analysis in its planned update of the Columbia class lead submarine cost estimate. (Recommendation 1)

Agency: Department of Defense: Department of the Navy
Status: Open

Comments: DOD concurred with this recommendation, stating that the Columbia Class Program cost estimate will be updated in 2019 to support the lead ship authorization Decision Acquisition Board in 2020. As of September 2020, we have yet to receive an update on the status of this recommendation.

Recommendation: The Secretary of the Navy should direct NAVSEA to develop a realistic and well-documented estimate of savings from use of the authorities associated with the Fund and incorporate the savings associated with the lead submarine into the Columbia lead submarine cost estimate. (Recommendation 2)

Agency: Department of Defense: Department of the Navy
Status: Open

Comments: DOD agreed with this recommendation, stating that the updated Columbia Class Program cost estimate would incorporate estimated savings from use of the authorities associated with the fund and savings associated with the Columbia lead submarine cost estimate. In August 2020, Navy officials indicated that NAVSEA updated the Columbia lead submarine cost estimate to include updates to the estimate of savings from the use of the authorities associated with the Fund.

Recommendation: The Secretary of the Navy should direct the Columbia class program office to update the lead submarine cost estimate and cost risk analysis prior to requesting funds for lead submarine construction. (Recommendation 3)

Agency: Department of Defense: Department of the Navy
Status: Open

Comments: DOD concurred with this recommendation, stating that the lead submarine cost estimate and cost risk analysis will be updated to support the lead ship authorization Decision Acquisition Board in 2020. In August 2020, Navy officials indicated that NAVSEA updated the Columbia lead submarine cost estimate. However, this estimate was completed after funding was requested for lead submarine construction. While the Office of Cost Assessment and Program Evaluation plans to conduct an assessment of this estimate in the summer of 2020, the assessment will also be too late to inform the Navy's funding request.

Recommendation: The Under Secretary for Management should require the Office of Program Accountability and Risk Management to assess the results of major acquisition programs' post-implementation reviews and identify opportunities to improve performance across the acquisition portfolio. (Recommendation 2)

Agency: Department of Homeland Security
Status: Open

Comments: In providing comments on this report, DHS concurred with our recommendation and stated that it planned to update its policy to require more formal reporting requirements and execution criteria for post-implementation reviews. PARM also plans to initiate a study focused on assessing lessons learned and developing a tool to share them across components to improve performance of the acquisition portfolio. In February 2020, PARM approved guidance intended to standardize analysis elements for post-implementation reviews. As of July 2020, PARM was still in the process of developing a tool to share results across components, but in the interim, results from some post-implementation reviews have been shared during meetings with Component Acquisition Executives. GAO will review post-implementation reviews conducted under the new guidance and will monitor DHS's implementation of the tool to ensure the department's actions meet the intent of this recommendation.

Recommendation: To mitigate the risk of poor acquisition outcomes and strengthen the department's investment decisions, the Secretary of Homeland Security should direct the Undersecretary for Management to update the acquisition policy to require that major acquisition programs' technical requirements are well defined and key technical reviews are conducted prior to approving programs to initiate product development and establishing Acquisition Program Baselines, in accordance with acquisition best practices.

Agency: Department of Homeland Security
Status: Open

Comments: In providing comments on this report, DHS concurred with our recommendation and stated that it planned to initiate a study to assess how to better align its processes for technical reviews and acquisition decisions. Upon completion of the study, DHS updated its acquisition policy instruction in May 2019, which adjusted the acquisition life cycle. Specifically, the updated instruction requires programs to conduct key technical reviews--including a preliminary design review--prior to establishing the program's Acquisition Program Baseline. As of July 2020, DHS was in the process of updating the related policies and guidance for its Systems Engineering Life Cycle, which govern the department's technical reviews. GAO will review these policies and guidance once complete to confirm alignment with the changes made to the acquisition management instruction and will monitor DHS's implementation of its new acquisition life cycle to ensure the department's actions meet the intent of this recommendation.