The Government Accountability Office has found the Defense Department‘s February 2016 report did not include all required information on military, civilian and contracted services workforces to demonstrate cost savings.GAO said Wednesday DoD did not meet section 955 of the National Defense Authorization Act that requires the department to report costs of civilian and contracted services workforces from fiscal years 2012 through 2017.
Auditors said DoD’s report did not have a summary of cost savings achieved in the previous fiscal year through military and civilian workforce reductions as well as a summary of contracted services reductions.
The department interpreted section 955 as requiring a report on civilian savings achieved when comparing costs from fiscal years 2012 to 2017 and not each year in between, officials told GAO.
Officials added DoD did not provide accurate number of full-time equivalents for contracted services to include in the report.
Auditors found that DoD has not developed and implemented a plan to reduce civilian and contracted services workforces and the department failed to show how its reductions are consistent with workforce management laws in the report as required by section 995.
In December 2015, GAO recommended for DoD to include costs savings for civilian personnel in its reports and provide a description of efficiencies plan to achieve savings.
