The Department of Defense Office of Inspector General (DoD OIG) issued its 2018 Compendium of Open Office of Inspector General Recommendations to the DoD on July 30.
The DoD OIG conducts independent audits and evaluations of DoD programs and operations. These reports often include recommendations for improvement or corrective actions that, if implemented, could enable the DoD to reduce costs, realize monetary benefits, and improve performance and efficiency. The Compendium summarizes all DoD OIG recommendations that were issued to DoD components and remained open as of March 31, 2018. An open recommendation is a recommendation made in a previously-issued DoD OIG report for which corrective actions have not been completed.
The Compendium supports the DoD OIG’s mission to track, report on, and focus attention on the open recommendations that have not been fully implemented. This is the second year it has been issued.
The first Compendium, issued in August 2017, listed 1,298 open recommendations. It also discussed recommendations with significant potential monetary benefits, and highlighted key recommendations that were not implemented. Since its issuance, the DoD has made significant efforts to address many of the open recommendations. DoD management provided documentation that enabled the DoD OIG to close 421 of those 1,298 open recommendations.
In his video announcement of the 2018 Compendium, Principal Deputy Inspector General Glenn Fine said, “We believe [the DoD’s] concerted efforts to address open recommendations are a positive step and an important outgrowth of our Compendium.”
The 2018 Compendium identifies an increase in open recommendations – from 1,298 in 2017 to 1,558 as of March 31, 2018. The increase was the result of new OIG reports that were issued in the last year.
The new Compendium highlights 25 high-priority open recommendations and summarizes 33 recommendations, which identify $2.3 billion in potential monetary benefits. The 2018 Compendium also includes a chapter listing the 56 recommendations that have been open for five or more years.
“We intend to continue our focus on open recommendations, and we intend to issue this Compendium on an annual basis,” said Fine. “We believe this effort can provide continued visibility on open recommendations, and continue to help improve DoD programs and operations.”