Defense Transportation

Final Evaluation Plan Is Needed to Assess Alternatives to the Current Personal Property Program Gao ID: NSIAD-00-217R September 27, 2000

Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on the Department of Defense's Transportation Command's efforts to evaluate alternatives to the current personal property program.

GAO noted that: (1) the Transportation Command's decision to begin collecting data from the ongoing pilot project and current program in June 2000 was reasonable because: (a) the Command needs to determine this year whether its evaluation plan can be successfully executed so that any necessary changes can be made before any further assessments of pilot projects are initiated in 2001; (b) the current evaluation plan, although incomplete, provides sufficient guidance to allow the Command to begin collecting time-sensitive and other data required for analysis; and (c) the collection of data during the high-demand summer moving season in this year's assessment allows the Department to begin determining whether its pilot projects can provide the level of services desired for its servicemembers and their families when they relocate; (2) the current evaluation plan is incomplete because methodological issues related to how total costs will be measured remain unresolved; (3) if the Command does not finalize its evaluation plan and complete its current assessment, it will be unable to meet a February 15, 2001, internal reporting deadline; (4) this will impact the Command's ability to make any needed changes to the plan before conducting its initial assessment of the second pilot next year and a reassessment, if needed, of the ongoing pilot before it expires at the end of 2001; (5) if these problems are not addressed in a timely manner and should assessments continue into 2002, the Department will need to modify existing contracts or award new contracts; and (6) should this occur, the Department's efforts to improve its personal property program will be further delayed and cost more.

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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