DOD Has Mixed Record on Implementing GAO Space Program Recommendations

A recent report from the Government Accountability Office (GAO) shows that the Department of Defense (DOD) has a mixed record of implementing GAO’s recommendations over the past eight years regarding DOD space activities.

GAO’s letter report reviews all 3,099 recommendations that it made to DOD during that time period on all issues, not only those affecting DOD space programs. GAO then categorizes the recommendations as open, closed-implemented, or closed-not implemented. While it is a numerical assessment only, not a substantive assessment of what the recommendations were and the impact of implementing or not implementing them, the summary does provide an interesting glimpse of the extent to which DOD is responsive to GAO.

SpacePolicyOnline.com has extracted the data on recommendations concerning DOD space programs, available in this table. Of the 25 reports that we could identify as being directly related to space activities, GAO counted 16 recommendations as “open,” 43 as “closed-implemented,” and 21 as “closed-not implemented.” Among those “open” are all that were made in four reports GAO issued in FY2008. The reports concerned operationally responsive space (GAO-08-831), low cost space capabilities (GAO-08-516), polar-orbiting environmental satellites (GAO-08-518), and Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicles (GAO-081039). A fifth GAO report in FY2008, on Space Based Infrared System (SBIRS) software, had two recommendations that GAO categorizes as “closed-not implemented.”

GAO was required to submit this report to Congress by language in the FY2010 Concurrent Resolution on the Budget. It does not include classified reports or reports that GAO issued that had no recommendations.