GAO has said that the $158 million cost that DoD has estimated for putting the national security personnel system in place likely understates the cost but that an accurate figure is elusive, since DoD “has not established an oversight mechanism to ensure that these costs are fully captured.” It said that DoD’s policies do not define the direct and indirect costs of NSPS and that it’s unknown how much the department has spent so far on the personnel reform. But it concluded that the data DoD has don’t account for all the direct costs—for example, for salaries of employees who support NSPS activities—nor all the indirect costs, such as administrative services, general research and technical support, rent, and operating and maintenance costs for buildings, equipment, and utilities. Further, different components account for certain costs in differing ways. GAO stated in report GAO-07-851 that the NSPS accounting problem is not unique among DoD programs, since DoD’s “pervasive financial management deficiencies have been the basis for GAO’s designation of this as a high-risk area since 1995.” The cost is among the various objections that opponents of NSPS, primarily federal unions and some individual employees, raise regarding the program.