The Government Accountability Office has called on the U.S. Coast Guard to develop a 20-year modernization plan for its fleet of cutter ships and aircraft to determine assets that need to be acquired in order to maintain its current service level.
GAO said in a report released Tuesday that such a plan could also help the service branch identify financial resources necessary to procure such assets.
According to the report, the Coast Guard has taken steps to develop such a plan in order to update its asset recapitalization program.
The congressional audit agency also found that the Coast Guard headquarters’ Strategic Planning Directions used as part of the Standard Operational Planning Process, which is designed to help the service branch annually allot resource hours for assets to carry out mission responsibilities, do not provide deployed units with strategic goals.
GAO said the military branch should work to implement a systematic process for the incorporation of “field unit input to inform more realistic asset allocation decisions.â€
“The Coast Guard concurred with GAO’s recommendation and stated that it was taking actions to better incorporate field unit input for fiscal year 2017,†the report said.
