GAO report finds DOD needs to strengthen utility resilience planning
The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) recently released a report on U.S. Department of Defense-owned utilities and the need to strengthen its resilience planning on future installations.
Based on a GAO-conducted survey of DOD-owned utility systems, there were 4,393 total instances of utility disruptions caused by equipment failure for fiscal years 2009 through 2015. Some DOD installation officials said the disruptions have caused a range of financial and operational impacts to the department. Surgery respondents reported more than $29 million in financial impacts for the same time period.
The report found that the DOD’s implementation of the Sustainment Management System (SMS), a software tool to conduct standardization condition assessments, may not provide it with comparable and reliable facility condition index (FCI) data. That type of data is used to make strategic investment decisions. DOD said the SMS module for utility systems is still in development, but the modules for other facilities such as buildings are complete and in use.
While SMS is intended to provide the DOD with correct data, the report found the process could result in differences in the FCI because the services are able to customize settings within the process. Variations in these figures could result in facilities having differences in the FCI even though the assessed physical conditions of the facilities are the same.
The GAO report recommended that the Army, Air Force, and Marine Corps take steps to provide guidance to consistently collect disruption information. Additionally, GAO said the DOD should take steps to ensure that the services apply condition standards consistently while the SMS utilities module is under development.
