A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Governmentwide, 23 agencies and their 130 subagencies GAO reviewed implemented nearly 700 renewable energy initiatives in fiscal year 2010. The Departments of Defense (DOD), Agriculture (USDA), Energy (DOE), and the Interior were collectively responsible for almost 60 percent of all initiatives."

Correspondence issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The formal start of the VXX presidential helicopter program has been delayed, as finding an acceptable solution has proved elusive. Last year, we reported that the VXX effort was in the earliest stages of development--still developing a business case to launch product development. At that time, an AOA—required for a Milestone A decision initiating the program—was nearing completion and a Milestone A decision was expected to occur sometime in fiscal year 2011. In March 2011 the Navy sent DOD its VXX AOA study, which Navy officials stated was done in compliance with DOD-provided guidance. DOD did not, however, approve the study as it did not find that the study provided a cost effective solution. Rather, OSD and the Navy subsequently decided to update the analysis of alternatives using an acquisition strategy that might result in a more timely and affordable program using additional guidance provided by OSD in December 2011. That guidance reflects insights on requirements gained in the last year and expectations of using a streamlined acquisition approach proposed by the Navy. This has delayed the VXX program’s entry into development. Navy officials expect that this new …

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "U.S. agencies under Chief of Mission authority and the Department of Defense (DOD) have reported expanding their civilian presence in Afghanistan and took steps to improve their ability to track that presence. Since January 2009, U.S. agencies under Chief of Mission authority more than tripled their civilian presence from 320 to 1,142. However, although State could report total Chief of Mission numbers by agency, in mid-2011 GAO identified discrepancies in State’s data system used to capture more-detailed staffing information such as location and position type. State began taking steps in the fall of 2011 to improve the reliability of its data system. Also, DOD reported expanding its overall civilian presence from 394 civilians in January 2009 to 2,929 in December 2011 to help assist U.S. efforts in Afghanistan. The extent to which DOD’s data is reliable is unknown due to omissions and double counting, among other things. In a 2009 report, GAO noted similar data issues and recommended DOD improve data concerning deployed civilians. DOD concurred with the recommendation and expects the issues will be addressed by a new tracking system to be completed in fiscal …

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "GAO found that VA’s estimated savings from two of its six operational improvements lacked analytic support and estimated savings from another were flawed. Without a sound methodology for estimating these savings, VA runs the risk of not achieving them. Furthermore, due in part to flaws GAO identified with another operational improvement—reducing acquisition costs—VA decided to revise it. Because this effort was still in progress, GAO could not evaluate VA’s estimated savings and process for tracking actual savings from this operational improvement. In addition, GAO found that VA lacks a process for tracking actual savings for one operational improvement and its processes may overstate results for two others. Without an accurate process for tracking these savings, VA will be unable to determine whether it has realized the estimated savings reflected in the President’s budget request for fiscal years 2012 and 2013."

Correspondence issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "While DOD, collectively, has partially implemented each of our four recommendations regarding the service academies and their preparatory schools, the actions taken by the services vary significantly. In addition, OUSD (P&R) has not yet updated its guidance for the academies and preparatory schools to address our 2003 recommendations. The text below summarizes the four recommendations we made in September 2003 regarding the academies and their preparatory schools and the status of DOD’s implementation."