FEDE U.S. Government Accountability Office · Audits audits
What GAO Found In the first half of 2025, the President issued a series of executive orders directing federal agency heads—in consultation with the United States DOGE Service (also known as the Department of Government Efficiency) agency team leads—to review and terminate contracts in order to reduce federal spending, among other things. In response, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) conducted a department-wide review of over 17,000 contracts to assess their level of importance to the agency’s mission. This assessment resulted in DHS components completely or partially terminating contracts for cost savings. In addition, in March 2025, DHS began requiring approval by the Deputy Secre.
FEDE U.S. Government Accountability Office · Audits audits
What GAO Found After three unsuccessful attempts over two decades, the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) undertook a fourth effort in 2017—the Electronic Health Record Modernization (EHRM) program—to modernize its legacy health information system. GAO has previously reported on the challenges VA has experienced with this effort. In these reports, GAO made 18 recommendations to improve cost estimating, schedule, program management, user adoption and satisfaction, and operational testing. GAO deemed 12 of these as priority recommendations because of their criticality to successful future deployments. As of August 2026, VA has not yet fully implemented 14 of the 18 recommendations. Implement.
FEDE U.S. Government Accountability Office · Audits audits
What GAO Found The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) issues certificates to aircraft mechanics and to the more than 200 aviation maintenance schools that train them. Eleven of these certificated schools are high schools, and 43 are colleges, universities, or career and technical centers that serve high school students. In addition, at least 43 high schools offer programs in aviation maintenance but are not certificated by FAA. The school representatives that GAO interviewed had little data on career outcomes but cited a range of pathways that graduates have pursued, including further training and enrolling in 4-year colleges. FAA-Certificated Schools That Train High School Students in A.
FEDE U.S. Government Accountability Office · Audits audits
What GAO Found The General Services Administration (GSA) is responsible for ensuring that federal agencies have access to telecommunications services. Six agencies GAO selected to review recently completed their transitions from expired, legacy telecommunications contracts to the replacement Enterprise Infrastructure Solutions (EIS) contract. However, their transitions were delayed by more than three years past GSA’s September 2022 revised deadline. Due to continued delays, GSA took actions to extend the service period of the legacy contracts until May 2026 at the latest to avoid service disruptions. The delays exposed the agencies to price increases due to the ability of vendors to raise p.
FEDE U.S. Government Accountability Office · Audits audits
What GAO Found Since 2020, four federal agencies administered the bulk of federal funding for broadband deployment through the nine programs GAO reviewed. These were the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), and Departments of Agriculture and the Treasury. For example, NTIA oversees the over $42-billion Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) program, which provides grants to states and territories that select providers to deploy broadband networks to underserved areas. As of February 2026, all nine programs had begun distributing funding. Expected Completion Date for Selected Programs’ Broadband Deployment Progra.
FEDE U.S. Government Accountability Office · Audits audits
What the OIG Found In 2021, GAO established a 5-year IT modernization plan with initiatives that were projected to cost about $29 million. As GAO’s IT modernization efforts evolved, the agency transitioned from a comprehensive 5-year IT modernization plan to an ongoing modernization strategy. The decision to evolve away from the approximately $1 million plan occurred less than 18 months after it was finalized. However, due to a lack of documentation, current officials were not fully aware of the decision-making process that led to the transition. Documenting strategic changes as they occur is critical for ensuring decisions are justified, preserving institutional knowledge, and keeping stak.
FEDE U.S. Government Accountability Office · Audits audits
What GAO Found The U.S. Navy has not fully mitigated attack submarine fleet maintenance and other challenges affecting readiness. Over the last 10 years, the U.S. Navy has lost more than 15,000 operational days due to maintenance delays and idle time on active attack submarines. These delays resulted in an estimated $3.4 billion in costs to sustain crews and submarines that provided no operational capability. U.S. Navy Attack Submarine Depot Maintenance Delays, Length of Depot Maintenance Periods, and Idle Time, Fiscal Years 2016–2025 Lost operational days include delays completing depot maintenance and active idle time. Active idle time describes a period when an attack submarine and its c.
FEDE U.S. Government Accountability Office · Audits audits
What GAO Found The U.S. commercial space sector has grown rapidly over the last few years, and offers data and data-related services—such as the imagery below—that the Department of Defense (DOD) uses to maintain national security. National Reconnaissance Office Purchased Commercial Images of Chinese Aircraft Carriers Within the Space Force, the Joint Commercial Operations Cell (JCO)—the main organization that buys data and services—purchased various types of data and services through the contractor-operated Global Data Marketplace. JCO expended $76.8 million on data and services from the marketplace from January 2023 through September 2025. These purchases supported missions including spac.
FEDE U.S. Government Accountability Office · Audits audits
What GAO Found In school year 2024–2025, about 10 percent of the approximately 60,000 K-12 students attending Department of Defense Education Activity’s (DODEA) schools full time received strategic instruction. This is short-term extra help in a small group setting (see figure). About 5 percent had a “specific learning disability” (SLD). SLDs are a group of disorders, such as dyslexia and dyscalculia, related to understanding language or doing mathematical calculations. The number of DODEA students with SLDs increased 29 percent from school years 2018–2019 through 2024–2025. DODEA Instructional Materials for Students with Literacy and Math Deficits Most staff in the 11 selected schools GAO..
FEDE U.S. Government Accountability Office · Audits audits
What GAO Found Selected field offices in Department of Energy's (DOE) Office of Environmental Management (EM) have taken steps to evaluate effectiveness of contractor assurance systems (CAS) in accordance with DOE policy, though neither DOE nor EM have defined effectiveness or specified evaluation criteria. The basis on which the selected field offices made their respective effectiveness determinations was unclear (see table). In addition, all selected field offices reported examples of poor CAS performance and recurring issues that undermined the reliability of the effectiveness determinations. How Selected EM Field Offices Assessed Contractor Assurance System (CAS) Effectiveness Selected..
FEDE U.S. Government Accountability Office · Audits audits
What GAO Found Qualified Opportunity Zones (Zone)—low-income census tracts nominated by governors and designated by the Department of the Treasury—have lower incomes and higher poverty than other census tracts. The law commonly known as the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA) changed the eligibility criteria for Zone designation, which resulted in fewer eligible tracts for future selection. Stakeholders, including some states and subject-matter specialists, reported that this may allow better targeting of the tax incentive to the most economically distressed areas. Stakeholders reported the incentive is primarily funding real estate development. According to state officials and Qualified Opp.
FEDE U.S. Government Accountability Office · Audits audits
What GAO Found The Department of Defense (DOD) does not request full funding of identified needs for installation maintenance or major improvement projects for facilities. This shortage has led to an estimated $285 billion of maintenance backlogs in fiscal year 2025. Due to competing budget priorities, DOD set a goal to fund 90 percent of its maintenance needs, but GAO found that the military services continue to fall short of this goal by funding about 80 percent of these needs. DOD has not fully determined the risks to its mission and to the quality of life of its personnel as a result of not meeting its funding goal. Fully determining and communicating these risks would provide better in.
