GAO: Air Force must improve inventory monitoring systems

The Air Force must do a better job of developing asset tracking systems, according to a new report from the Government Accountability Office.

The watchdog agency focused on two business systems the Air Force is building to overhaul its logistics and financial management: the Expeditionary Combat Support System and the Defense Enterprise Accounting and Management System. One of the service's goals was to ensure total asset visibility, the report (GAO-08-866) stated.

The Air Force and other Defense Department agencies have been criticized for their failure to adequately track assets. Poor monitoring has led to massive excess inventories and continued purchasing of unneeded items, GAO has reported. In fact, the Defense Department's supply chain management has been on GAO's high-risk list since 1990.

ECSS will provide a consolidated, integrated logistics system to track transportation, supply, maintenance and repair, and other key engineering and acquisition functions. It is expected to be fully operational in fiscal 2013.

DEAMS, slated to be up and running in fiscal 2014, will help with financial management tasks such as collections, cost accounting, receipts and financial reporting.

GAO found that the Air Force has not implemented best practices for risk management and systems testing. In particular, neither the ECSS nor DEAMS program management offices were sufficiently monitoring risk management activities in subordinate programs or activities, GAO reported.

"These findings increase the risk that these business system initiatives will not meet their stated functionality, cost, and milestone goals, thereby limiting the Air Force's efforts to achieve total asset visibility and other DoD business transformation priorities," the report stated.

Additionally, while the Air Force's strategic plans align with broader Defense business transformation goals, the service has not sufficiently coordinated its plan with the department's, GAO found. For example, the service has not established shared metrics. "As a result, neither the Air Force nor [Defense] will have the performance data needed to oversee efforts intended to improve the Air Force's ability to locate, manage and account for assets throughout their life cycle," the report stated.

Paul Brinkley, deputy undersecretary of Defense for business transformation, agreed with GAO's recommendations, which included ensuring that risk management activities at all levels of the program are adequately communicated to managers.

"Overall, the department considers the recommendations to be representative of best practices that are currently being followed by the Air Force," Brinkley wrote in a formal response to the report. "The Air Force is currently taking additional steps to address some of GAO's specific findings, to include strengthening existing risk management processes, and revising its plans as appropriate to better reflect alignment with priorities defined in the department's enterprise transition plan."