GAO reports on DoD/State projects

Last month the Government Accountability Office (GAO) released a report documenting lessons learned from the Global Security Contingency Fund (GSCF) program managed by the Departments of State and Defense (DoD). The report, GAO-15-75, describes processes State and DoD have developed to manage the GSCF program and the status of GSCF projects. The report also examines how State and DoD defined the time frames for GSCF projects.

GAO found that State and DoD have missed the original deadlines of five out of seven GSCF projects that were submitted for congressional approval in 2012, and that another two projects have yet to begin execution. State and DoD cited security concerns among their reasons for the missed deadlines. GAO also found that State and DoD were not clear in defining their near- and mid-term deadlines, and that neither State nor DoD have tracked GSCF projects
against established time frames.

GAO has recommended that State and DoD provide and overall range of time for near- to mid-term GSCF projects and that they track projects against this time frame. While State initially disagreed with GAO’s recommendations, both State and DoD agreed to the recommendations once they were amended to allow for flexibility.

For more information about GAO-15-75, please follow the link below.
GAO-15-75, Building Partner Capacity: State and DoD Need to Define Time Frames to Guide and Track Global Security Contingency Fund Projects