Projects by the military services are collectively overseen by a system called the Unified Facilities Criteria. Image: Frontpage/Shutterstock.com
By: FEDweek StaffA quarter of DoD construction projects are more than a year late in getting started for reasons including “poor initial planning for utility connections, design errors, delayed government approvals, refinement of customer requirements, and contractor issues such as poor performance,” the GAO has said, calling on the department to make better use of the information it has on hand to learn lessons from those problems for the future.
A report said that as of the end of fiscal 2023, DoD had some 600 construction projects underway, ranging from child care centers to barracks and maintenance hangars, and asked for $15 billion in its fiscal 2025 budget request. “Proper planning of such projects is critical to avoid delays from errors that could increase costs,” it said.
Projects by the military services are collectively overseen by a system called the Unified Facilities Criteria, but DoD “does not fully monitor the execution” of those projects, it said. The Office of the Secretary of Defense collects detailed information on some projects, but the information for all others “is limited and OSD relies on Army and Navy construction agents for project monitoring.”
“OSD officials told GAO the information they collect for these projects is for reporting purposes only and is not relevant for identifying trends, which can help inform a risk-based oversight approach,” it said.
It gave as an example one building that was delayed for more than three years due to design errors and insufficient quality control oversight, but “construction agent officials said they were not using a lessons-learned system to share project observations.”
“By issuing guidance to require reporting of more relevant information, such as the DoD construction agent responsible for each project and planning and design milestones, OSD would have better visibility into projects and could better identify and address individual and systemic issues,” it said.
It said DoD concurred with recommendations to develop such guidance and improve processes for sharing lessons learned.
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