Reports & Testimonies
Recommendations Database
GAO’s recommendations database contains report recommendations that still need to be addressed. GAO’s priority recommendations are those that we believe warrant priority attention. We sent letters to the heads of key departments and agencies, urging them to continue focusing on these issues. Below you can search only priority recommendations, or search all recommendations.
Our recommendations help congressional and agency leaders prepare for appropriations and oversight activities, as well as help improve government operations. Moreover, when implemented, some of our priority recommendations can save large amounts of money, help Congress make decisions on major issues, and substantially improve or transform major government programs or agencies, among other benefits.
As of October 25, 2020, there are 4812 open recommendations, of which 473 are priority recommendations. Recommendations remain open until they are designated as Closed-implemented or Closed-not implemented.
Browse or Search Open Recommendations
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Results:
Federal Agency: "Department of Defense: Office of the Secretary of Defense"
Phone: (202) 512-9971
including 5 priority recommendations
Agency: Department of Defense: Office of the Secretary of Defense
Status: Open
Priority recommendation
Comments: The Department of Defense partially concurred with this recommendation. When we confirm what actions the agency has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.
Agency: Department of Defense: Office of the Secretary of Defense
Status: Open
Priority recommendation
Comments: The Department of Defense partially concurred with this recommendation. When we confirm what actions the agency has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.
Agency: Department of Defense: Office of the Secretary of Defense
Status: Open
Priority recommendation
Comments: The Department of Defense did not concur with this recommendation. When we confirm what actions the agency has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.
Agency: Department of Defense: Office of the Secretary of Defense
Status: Open
Comments: The Department of Defense partially concurred with this recommendation. When we confirm what actions the agency has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.
Agency: Department of Defense: Office of the Secretary of Defense
Status: Open
Comments: The Department of Defense concurred with this recommendation. When we confirm what actions the agency has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.
Agency: Department of Defense: Office of the Secretary of Defense
Status: Open
Priority recommendation
Comments: The Department of Defense did not concur with this recommendation. When we confirm what actions the agency has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.
Agency: Department of Defense: Office of the Secretary of Defense
Status: Open
Priority recommendation
Comments: The Department of Defense partially concurred with this recommendation. When we confirm what actions the agency has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.
GAO-20-295, Apr 6, 2020
Phone: (202) 512-2775
Agency: Department of Defense: Office of the Secretary of Defense
Status: Open
Comments: When we confirm what actions the agency has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.
Agency: Department of Defense: Office of the Secretary of Defense
Status: Open
Comments: When we confirm what actions the agency has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.
Agency: Department of Defense: Office of the Secretary of Defense
Status: Open
Comments: When we confirm what actions the agency has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.
GAO-20-281, Mar 26, 2020
Phone: (202) 512-2775
Agency: Department of Defense: Office of the Secretary of Defense
Status: Open
Comments: The Department of Defense (DOD) concurred with this recommendation. In its August 2020 response, DOD noted that the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Sustainment (ASD (S)), as the Chief Housing Officer, issued guidance requiring the military departments to monitor work order completion for housing privatized under the Military Housing Privatization Initiative based on a combination of resident input, timeliness of work order completion, and number of repeat work orders for the same repair. The guidance also required increased tracking of MHPI project work orders by installation staff. Moving forward, the ASD(S) plans to issue quarterly program review guidance that establishes oversight objectives for the military departments to monitor the physical condition of MHPI housing over the duration of their project ground leases, formalizing the requirement that the data be monitored by the Chief Housing Officer. DOD expects this to be completed by December 2020. We will continue to monitor the status of this recommendation.
Agency: Department of Defense: Office of the Secretary of Defense
Status: Open
Comments: e Department of Defense (DOD) partially concurred with this recommendation. In its August 2020 response, DOD stated that the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Sustainment (ASD(S)), as the Chief Housing Officer, plans to issue a policy directing the military departments to establish, to the maximum extent practical, minimum data requirements and consistent terminology and practices for MHPI housing unit work order collection to aid in comparability across installations and projects, and for tracking trends over time. However, DOD noted that the department cannot mandate changes to existing MHPI project legal documents. DOD estimates that this effort will be completed by December 2021. We will continue to monitor the status of this recommendation.
Agency: Department of Defense: Office of the Secretary of Defense
Status: Open
Comments: The Department of Defense (DOD) concurred with this recommendation. In its August 2020 response, DOD noted that the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Sustainment (ASD(S)), as the Chief Housing Officer, issued guidance directing the military departments to exercise proper oversight to ensure Military Housing Privatization Initiative (MHPI) projects perform in accordance with legal agreements, to include due diligence in monitoring and auditing project maintenance records and other project performance data. The guidance also required military departments to review their entire portfolios of MHPI projects to ensure accurate and appropriate work order management processes. In response to the new guidance, DOD noted that the military departments put in place appropriate oversight measures and undertook the required reviews, though the investigations of project business practices were ongoing in some cases. As another step, the ASD(S) plans to issue guidance directing the military departments to establish a process to validate data collected by their respective MHPI Project Owners to better ensure the reliability and validity of work order data and to allow for more effective use of these data for monitoring and tracking purposes. DOD expects this to be completed by the end of September 2020. We will continue to monitor the status of this recommendation.
Agency: Department of Defense: Office of the Secretary of Defense
Status: Open
Comments: The Department of Defense (DOD) partially concurred with this recommendation based on the fact that the draft report listed the incorrect office as the source for addressing the deficiency, but subsequently changed its response to concur after the recommendation was directed to the appropriate office in the final report. In its August 2020 response, DOD noted that the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Sustainment (ASD(S)) plans to issue guidance establishing a department-wide process for collecting and calculating resident satisfaction data to ensure that the data are compiled and calculated in a standardized and accurate way effective with the survey collection effort in Fiscal Year 2021. The department expects this effort to be completed by October 2020. We will continue to monitor the status of this recommendation.
Agency: Department of Defense: Office of the Secretary of Defense
Status: Open
Comments: The Department of Defense (DOD) partially concurred with this recommendation. In its August 2020 response, DOD noted that the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Sustainment (ASD(S)) would provide additional explanation of the MHPI resident satisfaction data collected and reported in future annual Military Housing Privatization Initiative (MHPI) reports to Congress, effective with the annual report covering fiscal year 2019. DOD noted that the additional information will include, among other things, an explanation of the limitations of available survey data, how resident satisfaction was calculated, and reasons for any missing data. As of August 2020, the annual MHPI report covering fiscal year 2018 was in final coordination and the department noted that the report would addresses a vast majority, but not all, of the requirements identified in our recommendation. DOD noted that the additional information would be provided in the next annual MHPI report. We will continue to monitor the status of this recommendation.
Agency: Department of Defense: Office of the Secretary of Defense
Status: Open
Comments: The Department of Defense (DOD) concurred with this recommendation. In its August 2020 response, DOD noted that the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Sustainment, as the Chief Housing Officer, planned to issue a policy establishing the assessment of Military Housing Privatization Initiative (MHPI) project financial viability as part of quarterly program reviews as a long-term requirement. The department noted that the program review data would be augmented by input from the MHPI companies, who are assessing the likely impact of proposed initiatives in conjunction with their third party lenders. The department expected this effort to be completed by December 2020. We will continue to monitor the status of this recommendation.
GAO-20-296, Mar 26, 2020
Phone: (202) 512-9971
Agency: Department of Defense: Office of the Secretary of Defense
Status: Open
Comments: DOD concurred with our recommendation and stated that the Nuclear Deterrent Senior Oversight Group co-chairs or, as necessary, the Deputy Secretary of Defense as the chair of Nuclear Deterrent Enterprise Review Group (NDERG), will update the applicable guidance to ensure that time frames and other information associated with planned actions are kept up to date. In April 2020, the acting Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Nuclear Matters issued a memo requesting updates to information that is included in the 2014 tracker by June 1, 2020; however, no additional guidance requiring continuing updates beyond June 1 has been issued as of September 2020.
Agency: Department of Defense: Office of the Secretary of Defense
Status: Open
Comments: DOD concurred with our recommendation and stated that the DOD Chief Information Officer and, as appropriate, the Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment as the NC3 capability portfolio manager, will update the applicable guidance to ensure that metrics, time frames, and other information associated with planned actions are kept up to date and complete.
GAO-20-316, Mar 6, 2020
Phone: (202) 512-9627
Agency: Department of Defense: Office of the Secretary of Defense
Status: Open
Comments: When we confirm what actions the agency has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.
Agency: Department of Defense: Office of the Secretary of Defense
Status: Open
Comments: When we confirm what actions the agency has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.
GAO-20-309, Mar 4, 2020
Phone: (202) 512-6881
Agency: Department of Defense: Office of the Secretary of Defense
Status: Open
Comments: DOD concurred with this recommendation in its official comment letter included as an appendix in GAO-20-309, published in March 2020. At that time, DOD provided a copy of a February 2020 memorandum issued in response to our draft recommendation that outlined procedures to capture and preserve information about ACSA establishment, including the dates of DOD's congressional notifications of intent to designate countries for ACSAs and agreement signature dates. In April 2020, DOD provided evidence confirming appropriate distribution of the memorandum. As of May 2020, we continue to work with DOD officials to secure evidence confirming its implementation.
Agency: Department of Defense: Office of the Secretary of Defense
Status: Open
Comments: DOD concurred with this recommendation in its official comment letter included as an appendix in GAO-20-309, published in March 2020. As we confirm DOD efforts in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.
Agency: Department of Defense: Office of the Secretary of Defense
Status: Open
Comments: DOD concurred with this recommendation in its official comment letter included as an appendix in GAO-20-309, published in March 2020. As we confirm DOD efforts in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.
Agency: Department of Defense: Office of the Secretary of Defense
Status: Open
Comments: DOD concurred with this recommendation in its official comment letter included as an appendix in GAO-20-309, published in March 2020. As we confirm DOD efforts in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.
Agency: Department of Defense: Office of the Secretary of Defense
Status: Open
Comments: DOD concurred with this recommendation in its official comment letter included as an appendix in GAO-20-309, published in March 2020. As we confirm DOD efforts in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.
Agency: Department of Defense: Office of the Secretary of Defense
Status: Open
Comments: DOD concurred with this recommendation in its official comment letter included as an appendix in GAO-20-309, published in March 2020. As we confirm DOD efforts in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.
GAO-20-299, Feb 25, 2020
Phone: (202) 512-6240
Agency: Department of Defense: Office of the Secretary of Defense
Status: Open
Comments: In written comments provided in July 2020, the Department of Defense concurred with our recommendation. The department noted that it had developed processes and resources to help determine the type of framework adoption across the Defense Industrial Base. These include conducting assessments on the implementation of NIST Special Publication (SP) 800-171 , "Protecting Controlled Unclassified Information in Nonfederal Systems and Organizations;" and releasing the Defense Industrial Base Implementation Guide for the NIST Cybersecurity Framework. However, the department has yet to report on sector-wide improvements using these processes and resources. Until it does so, its critical infrastructure sector may not fully understand the value of the framework to better protect its critical infrastructure from cyber threats. The expected completion dates are in September and November 2020.
GAO-20-323, Feb 20, 2020
Phone: (202) 512-3604
Agency: Department of Defense: Office of the Secretary of Defense
Status: Open
Comments: When we confirm what actions the agency has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.
Agency: Department of Defense: Office of the Secretary of Defense
Status: Open
Comments: When we confirm what actions the agency has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.
Agency: Department of Defense: Office of the Secretary of Defense
Status: Open
Comments: When we confirm what actions the agency has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.
Agency: Department of Defense: Office of the Secretary of Defense
Status: Open
Comments: When we confirm what actions the agency has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.
Agency: Department of Defense: Office of the Secretary of Defense
Status: Open
Comments: When we confirm what actions the agency has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.
Agency: Department of Defense: Office of the Secretary of Defense
Status: Open
Comments: When we confirm what actions the agency has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.
Agency: Department of Defense: Office of the Secretary of Defense
Status: Open
Comments: When we confirm what actions the agency has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.
GAO-20-110, Feb 12, 2020
Phone: (202) 512-3604
Agency: Department of Defense: Office of the Secretary of Defense
Status: Open
Comments: DOD did not concur with this recommendation. As of April 2020, this recommendation remains open.
Agency: Department of Defense: Office of the Secretary of Defense
Status: Open
Comments: DOD concurred with this recommendation. As of April 2020, this recommendation remains open.
Agency: Department of Defense: Office of the Secretary of Defense
Status: Open
Comments: DOD concurred with this recommendation. As of April 2020, this recommendation remains open.
Agency: Department of Defense: Office of the Secretary of Defense
Status: Open
Comments: DOD concurred with this recommendation. As of April 2020, this recommendation remains open.
Agency: Department of Defense: Office of the Secretary of Defense
Status: Open
Comments: DOD partially concurred with this recommendation. As of April 2020, this recommendation remains open.
Agency: Department of Defense: Office of the Secretary of Defense
Status: Open
Comments: DOD partially concurred with this recommendation. As of April 2020, this recommendation remains open.
Agency: Department of Defense: Office of the Secretary of Defense
Status: Open
Comments: DOD concurred with this recommendation. As of April 2020, this recommendation remains open.
Agency: Department of Defense: Office of the Secretary of Defense
Status: Open
Comments: DOD partially concurred with this recommendation. As of April 2020, this recommendation remains open.
Agency: Department of Defense: Office of the Secretary of Defense
Status: Open
Comments: DOD concurred with this recommendation. As of April 2020, this recommendation remains open.
Agency: Department of Defense: Office of the Secretary of Defense
Status: Open
Comments: DOD concurred with this recommendation. As of April 2020, this recommendation remains open.
Agency: Department of Defense: Office of the Secretary of Defense
Status: Open
Comments: DOD concurred with this recommendation. As of April 2020, this recommendation remains open.
GAO-20-312, Jan 30, 2020
Phone: (202) 512-2775
Agency: Department of Defense: Office of the Secretary of Defense
Status: Open
Comments: DOD concurred with this recommendation. In its concurrence, DOD stated that it intended to identify and document specific implementation steps to advance a collaborative culture through, among other things, the Chief Management Officer's forthcoming detailed implementing guidance on Secretary of Defense-empowered cross-functional teams and revisions to the DOD issuance regarding senior governance forums that are intended to advance a collaborative culture. As of July 2020, these efforts were still in progress, according to an OCMO official. We will continue to monitor DOD's efforts to address this recommendation.
GAO-20-80, Dec 19, 2019
Phone: (202) 512-4841
Agency: Department of Defense: Office of the Secretary of Defense
Status: Open
Comments: DOD concurred with our recommendation, but as of July 2020 is still working to implement its corrective action plan.
GAO-20-176, Dec 18, 2019
Phone: (202) 512-2775
Agency: Department of Defense: Office of the Secretary of Defense
Status: Open
Comments: When we confirm what actions the agency has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.
GAO-20-177, Dec 11, 2019
Phone: (202) 512-4841
Agency: Department of Defense: Office of the Secretary of Defense
Status: Open
Comments: DOD concurred with our recommendation, stating that the department will re-examine the most cost-effective approach to meet the intent of DIA validation to support development and fielding of effective Ballistic Missile Defense System (BMDS) elements. We have observed significant progress on this recommendation, primarily through the joint coordination occurring through the Defense Intelligence Ballistic Missile Analysis Committee (DIBMAC) Joint Modeling Tiger Team, where multiple pathways are being explored. Our recommendation calls for the intelligence community and MDA to coordinate on establishing a process for MDA to obtain validation of its threat models. We are also open to other pathways, such as intelligence community and MDA jointly producing threat models or MDA making direct use of threat models built by the intelligence community. Our objective is that MDA use threat models that are validated by the intelligence community when such models are necessary to inform formal BMDS processes, products, and decisions. Any pathway that MDA and the intelligence community agree upon that yields this result meets the intent of our recommendation. We believe that through the tiger team initiative, such coordination is occurring and therefore the closure of this recommendation as implemented in imminent. We are waiting to see: (1) whether MDA and intelligence community establish a formal process and/or jointly sign a memorandum of agreement to codify the process; and (2) the production and use of an intelligence community-validated threat model by MDA in a ground test or other Models and Simulation application.
GAO-18-130, Apr 16, 2018
Phone: (202) 512-4456
Agency: Department of Defense: Office of the Secretary of Defense
Status: Open
Comments: In October 2019, the DOD CIO developed a report on the first increment of version 3 of the department's information enterprise architecture (IEA). The report includes high-level descriptions of the current and target architectures, and high-level plans and schedules for transitioning from the current to the target architecture. The report states that because of the incremental approach to developing the architecture, the plans and schedules are notional and depend on several factors over which the DOD CIO has limited or no control, such as funding and changing world events, priorities, and technology. The report also describes plans to integrate the IEA with the department's business enterprise architecture. However, the report did not define a specific time frame for integrating the architectures. According to the report, for the next increment of the architecture, the department plans to develop compliance criteria and plans for developing an ontology, database, and tool suite. The department did not provide a time frame for completing the next increment. We will continue to monitor the department's efforts to implement the recommendation.
Agency: Department of Defense: Office of the Secretary of Defense
Status: Open
Comments: In October 2019, the DOD CIO developed a report on the first increment of version 3 of its information enterprise architecture (IEA). The report described planned efforts related to integrating the IEA and the business enterprise architecture. However, the report did not define a specific time frame for when the department plans to integrate the architectures.