The Government Accountability Office found that the Department of Defense has used human capital authorities for 90 percent of 44,291 DoD civilian personnel hiring actions from fiscal year 2014 to fiscal year 2018. DoD also increased spending on recruitment, retention and relocation bonuses as well as student loan payments for non-military workforce from $13.9M in FY 2014 to $33.7M in FY 2018, GAO said in a report published Thursday.
The government watchdog agency added it found the Pentagon’s Office of Human Capital Initiatives does not evaluate or track the use of such flexibilities on a regular basis and that the lack of monitoring efforts may prevent HCI from identifying any challenges, inconsistencies or areas of improvement.
GAO recommends that the HCI office monitor how DoD utilize civilian hiring authorities granted to the department. The Pentagon spends more than $300B on contracting efforts annually and its acquisition professionals help maximize the department’s buying power, GAO said.
