GAO: Poor workforce planning at depots threatens weapon repairs

The Defense Department continues to face staffing and capability shortfalls because of poor workforce planning at its depots, according to a new General Accounting Office report.

"The lack of a strategic plan may have serious implications because without forethought to shape the future of the depots and their workforces, the future capability of the two for performing work is questionable," said the report (GAO-03-472). The Defense Department employs about 72,000 workers at 22 Army, Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps depots, which are in-house repair and overhaul centers for the military's warfighting equipment. Since 1987, the number of depot employees has been cut by about 56 percent and many of the military services use private contractors for repair work.

Two years ago, GAO warned that the downsizing efforts and poor management of depots might hinder the Pentagon during a national emergency or prevent them from performing needed repairs on new weapons systems. To remedy the situation, the watchdog agency recommended that Defense officials develop a departmentwide depot strategic plan, but a second investigation found that the plan has yet to be formulated.

"Absent a comprehensive DoD plan, the services have in varying degrees initiated a strategic depot planning effort," the report said. "Generally, however, the service versions do not identify what work will be performed in the service depots in the future, and it is uncertain whether these activities will continue to be viable as the systems they support age and are phased out of the inventory."

According to GAO, the lack of a strategic workforce plan means that Defense officials continue to downsize the depot workforce with little thought to what staffing and capability they will need in the future.

"The result of downsizing is that the remaining depot maintenance workforce averages 47 years of age and has skill imbalances," GAO found. "With workload in some activities continuing to decline and with uncertainties about new work for the future, officials in depots, arsenals, and ammunition plants are uncertain whether they should plan to replace retiring workers and about what skills will be needed in the future."

GAO recommended several steps Defense should take to address the problem, including better defining what future work will be done by military depots and the private sector. Defense officials should also develop strategies for the depots that are incorporated into the overall department's strategic plan.

In conversations with GAO, Defense officials agreed with much of the agency's recommendations, but said that the proposed personnel system overhaul would correct some of the problems.

In response, GAO said that the personnel system had yet to gain congressional approval and Defense officials should move forward to develop the strategic plans for the department's depots.