If you haven’t read part one of this blog post go here.
Despite the old adage about curiosity killing the cat, I’ve always been one who doesn’t like to leave questions unanswered. So it’s surprising, actually, that it took me as long as it did to research what GAO was all about. In fact, it didn’t happen until yesterday. I caught the tail end of a story on the radio about the Pentagon’s plans to destroy over 1 billion dollars in ammunition. I didn’t hear enough of the story to know why they were destroying the ammunition or who uncovered this information. But I didn’t have to hear it- I immediately knew the Government Accountability Office was behind the story.
Here’s what the GAO uncovered:
- The ammunition slated to be destroyed, totaling over a billion dollars, is being destroyed because they’re not sure if it’s still good or not. Why, you might ask, don’t they know the quality/condition of the ammunition? Well, it appears the Defense Department’s inventory can’t share information effectively. According to the USA Today story on GAO’s report, “A request for ammunition from the Marine Corps, for example, is e-mailed to the Army. The e-mail is printed out and manually retyped into the Army system because the services cannot share data directly. Not only is this time consuming, but it can introduce errors — by an incorrect keystroke, for example.”
- Despite decades of efforts to create a system in which all divisions of the military could directly share inventory information, one has yet to be created. In fact, only the Army currently has a system that is in the same format that the Pentagon uses.
- Even though the GAO uncovered more than a billion dollars of waste, the total amount of waste is impossible to calculate. The divisions of the military aren’t required to reveal all of their inventory disposals, including missiles. Also, there have been instances in which required inventories have not been submitted.
So, if you aren’t aware of the GAO, are you becoming curious about who they are? According to their website, “The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) is an independent, nonpartisan agency that works for Congress. Often called the “congressional watchdog,” GAO investigates how the federal government spends taxpayer dollars. The head of GAO, the Comptroller General of the United States, is appointed to a 15-year term by the President from a slate of candidates Congress proposes.”
GAO initially stood for “General Accounting Office”. It was created in 1921 through the Budget and Accounting Act. The agency was created to help Congress manage the government’s spending due to the increased National Debt caused by WWI. Later the name was changed to help clear any confusion about the organization just being a group of accountants. Currently the GAO focuses primarily on investigating spending by federal programs and answering Congressional requests for information. Though the process of auditing a federal agency must cause some tension, the agencies who are audited general implement the suggestions made by GAO.
Though I’m sure it must sometimes feel like they’re fighting an uphill battle, I am thoroughly fascinated by and impressed with the work GAO is doing. Two thumbs up for critical thinking and common sense!!!
Sources:
Alavi, Maryam and Dorothy E. Leidner. “Review: Knowledge Management and Knowledge Management Systems: Conceptual Foundations and Research Issues.” MIS Quarterly 25 (2001): 107-136.
Government Accountability Office (GAO) Web. Retrieved on 30 April 2014. http://www.gao.gov/about/index.html.
USA Today. Retrieved on 30 April 2014. http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2014/04/27/pentagon-ammunition-sen-tom-carper-gao-waste/8145729/.
Librarian Rebecca 