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GAO-22-105664 1 (2022-08-12)

handle is hein.gao/gaonmk0001 and id is 1 raw text is: U.S. GOVERNMENT ACCOUNTABILITY OFFICE 441 G St. N.W. Comptroller General Washington, DC 20548 of the United States August 12, 2022 The Honorable Lloyd Austin Secretary of Defense U.S. Department of Defense 1000 Defense Pentagon Washington, D.C. 20301-1000 The Honorable Kathleen Hicks Deputy Secretary of Defense U.S. Department of Defense 1010 Defense Pentagon Washington, D.C. 20301-1010 Priority Open Recommendations: Department of Defense The purpose of this letter is to provide an update on the overall status of the Department of Defense's (DOD) implementation of GAO's recommendations and to call your continued personal attention to areas where open recommendations should be given high priority.1 In November 2021, we reported that on a government-wide basis, 76 percent of our recommendations made during the past 4 fiscal years were implemented.2 As of July 2022, DOD had 1,129 open recommendations with an implementation rate of 68 percent. Fully implementing these open recommendations could significantly improve DOD's operations. In addition to focusing on implementing GAO's recommendations, I request your assistance in addressing an issue that is negatively affecting our ability to complete our audit work in a timely manner. Specifically, GAO teams are experiencing significant delays obtaining the department's official comments on and sensitivity reviews of our draft reports. This has led to delays in the issuance of our work and, thus, the delivery of key information to Congress. Given the prolonged nature of some of these delays, we have issued some reports without DOD's comments. This is a decision we made reluctantly, as obtaining and reflecting official input on our reports is a valuable part of our reporting process. I ask for your support in addressing this issue moving forward.3 1Priority recommendations are those that GAO believes warrant priority attention from heads of key departments or agencies. They are highlighted because, upon implementation, they may significantly improve government operation-for example, by realizing large dollar savings; eliminating mismanagement, fraud, and abuse; or making progress toward addressing a high-risk or duplication issue. 2GAO, Performance and Accountability Report: Fiscal Year 2021, GAO-22-4SP (Washington, D.C.: November 2021). 3The House bill for the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2023 includes a provision focusing on DOD's delays in providing agency comments on GAO reports. This provision, if enacted, would require GAO to report periodically to Congress on the extent to which DOD has provided agency comments and sensitivity reviews of GAO reports in a timely manner. It would also require DOD, in follow-on reports to Congress, to identify factors that contributed to any delays and to outline plans for improvement. See H.R. 7900, 117th Cong. § 1069 (2022). GAO-22-105664 DOD Priority Recommendations Page 1

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