Defense Logistics

In Process

DOD's report addressed the six required reporting elements, but decision makers would benefit from additional information in future reports to Congress. The report provides the required information from the current fiscal year, but it does not include sufficient information for decision makers to identify changes in the program from year to year. During our review of the DOD report, we identified information such as the number of items on hand in the prior year and significant changes to the required items, that, in accordance with federal internal control standards, could further inform decision makers if included in next year's report. Without this information, decision makers may be unaware of developing trends and risks needed to make funding decisions, efficiently mitigate risk, and effectively manage the program. To provide Congress with the visibility to better assess the condition of DOD's prepositioned materiel and equipment, we are making two recommendations to enhance the information that DOD provides in its future reports. Decision makers would benefit from information on the addition of new items or spare parts to the prepositioned stocks, the authorized levels, percentage levels of fill, and serviceability rates from the prior year to use as a basis for comparison. Of the 17 recommendations that we have made to improve DOD prepositioning programs and reporting since 2005, DOD has implemented 9, has actions in progress to implement 5, and has not implemented 3 recommendations. In May 2011, we made 5 recommendations to improve strategic guidance, joint oversight, and reporting on DOD's prepositioning programs. DOD concurred with these recommendations and has taken steps to begin implementation. However, until DOD completes these actions, the department may continue to face challenges in ensuring that these programs accurately reflect national military objectives, and in identifying potential efficiencies across its prepositioning programs. For the remaining open recommendations, DOD officials stated that the department is considering actions to implement 2 of the recommendations related to the Army synchronizing its prepositioning strategy with a DOD-wide prepositioning strategy. However, until DOD finalizes its strategy, the department may not be able to ensure that future investments made for the Army's prepositioning program align with departmentwide prepositioning strategy. The remaining open recommendation concerns the inclusion of information on the services' progress in replenishing their individual prepositioned sets in DOD's annual prepositioning report. This recommendation remains open because DOD did not include progress information for each of the services as recommended. Until DOD includes this information for each service in its annual report, the report may not provide decision makers with complete information on DOD's prepositioned materiel and equipment. We continue to believe that implementing these eight open recommendations will strengthen DOD's prepositioning program, improve congressional visibility over departmentwide prepositioning efforts, and facilitate decision making about future program funding. To provide Congress with the visibility to better assess the status and condition of DOD's prepositioned materiel and equipment, we recommend that the Secretary of Defense direct the Joint Staff and the Secretaries of the military services to take two actions to provide in the next annual report, in addition to the six elements currently required, the following information: (1) comparisons of all major end items or spare parts, the objective levels, percentage levels of fill, and serviceability rates for the current and previous fiscal year; and (2) an explanation of significant changes from the previous report such as the reasons for the addition of new items or changes to the objective level, level of fill, or serviceability rates.