The State department’s Directorate of Defense Trade Controls does not perform systematic assessments to identify root causes of increased workload, processing times and open arms-export cases, and, in turn has failed to develop sustainable solutions to expedite the process, GAO has said.
The directorate reviews and authorizes export licenses, but despite efforts to streamline the process, wait times have increased in recent years, according to GAO-08-89.
Following an analysis of arms export cases from 2003 to 2007, relevant laws, regulations and guidelines, DDTC funding and staffing information and interviews with officials and arms exporters, GAO cited key trends indicating the process is under stress.
It said the number of arms export cases increased 20 percent between fiscal 2003 and 2006, while median processing times nearly doubled.
Further, the number of open arms export cases increased 50 percent from about 5,000 in October 2002 to about 7,500 in April 2007, with a high of more than 10,000 cases in September 2006, the report said.
To cut the backlog, in early 2007 DDTC pulled staff from other areas and cut activities – staff training, meetings, industry outreach – and managed to cut the number of open cases by 40 percent in three months.
However, GAO said the measures are not sustainable in the long term and don’t get at underlying inefficiencies, namely procedural inefficiencies, electronic processing system shortcomings, and human capital challenges.
For example, GAO said DDTC is taking longer to refer cases: 20 days in fiscal 2007, up from seven days in fiscal 2003.
Also, electronic processing has not been the promised panacea for improving processing times, GAO said, as implementation has been problematic.
