The Coast Guard has taken steps to improve the viability of its troubled Deepwater Program, but more tasks lie ahead, according to a March 24 report by the Government Accountability Office. Deepwater, the Coast Guard’s plan to modernize or replace 15 major classes of assets, has been besieged by cost overruns, schedule delays, and materiel that was designed and delivered with defects. The GAO had earlier attributed the problems to a policy that allowed contractors to "do the work of government." The Coast Guard took over management of Deepwater in 2007. Since then, the GAO report stated, the Coast Guard has implemented a "more disciplined, asset-by-asset approach," which has borne favorable results. But the service still needs to take better control of the process by which command, control, communications, computers, intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (C4ISR) systems are acquired, the report stated.