The 2013 furloughs at DoD triggered by sequestration budget limits had impacts including decreased employee morale and mission delays, GAO has said. Other issues included confusion over exactly which employees would be sent home without pay, and for how long, and a failure to consider the salary cost of those remaining on the job, it said.
DoD was among the agencies that imposed furloughs—some didn’t, for various reasons—ultimately imposing six days for most employees while excepting some for reasons related to mission needs or health and safety.
Officials told the auditors that they believe the furloughs and other sequestration-imposed cutbacks such as stretching out maintenance have “continued to affect their ability to recruit civilian and military personnel” although the impact may not be quantifiable.
Navy officials said that some actions taken, such as not exempting all shipyard civilians from furloughs or not performing preventative maintenance, “had unintended consequences for maintenance schedules or resulted in increased costs overall.” An internal Navy review found, for example, that almost half of the expected saving from furloughing Fleet Forces Command and Pacific Fleet civilians was lost due to added costs from schedule delays or lost productivity.
GAO’s observations came in the context of a report saying that in general, DoD would benefit from documenting and assessing lessons learned from the 2013 events, in preparation for something similar potentially happening again.
