Inadequate Methods Used To Account for Personnel in DOD's Transportation Function

A review was made of the budget data on personnel and their costs for the transportation function in the Department of Defense (DOD) for fiscal years (FY) 1978 and 1979.

The inconsistencies in transportation data were caused primarily by: (1) the lack of a standard definition of the transportation function; (2) inadequate coordination between transportation and personnel managers; and (3) the lack of a flexible system which permits reporting of how manpower is distributed functionally across organizational, occupational, and job structures. DOD has not adequately defined which organizations and jobs should be included in its transportation function. The costs of transportation personnel for FY 1978 and 1979 were understated because they were based on an incomplete definition of such personnel, exluded all contract personnel, and excluded federal government costs other than those met by DOD. Inadequate coordination at the directorate level within the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense contributed to the reporting of inaccurate and inconsistent data when officials who were responsible for transportation policies attempted to determine the number of transportation personnel in DOD without coordinating with the manpower office. DOD does not have a comprehensive manpower information system because each service has its own system; as a result, DOD has limited oversight over the use of manpower.

Recommendations

Our recommendations from this work are listed below with a Contact for more information. Status will change from "In process" to "Open," "Closed - implemented," or "Closed - not implemented" based on our follow up work.

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