Military Operations: Actions Needed to Improve Oversight and Interagency Coordination for the Commander's Emergency Response Program in Afghanistan
Released: 2009-05-18T00:00:00

Letter

Background

Afghanistan is a unique country with different development, security, and infrastructure issues and needs than Iraq. As a result, CERP efforts in Afghanistan are frequently focused on development and construction whereas in Iraq the focus of CERP is reconstruction of neglected or damaged infrastructure. The program has evolved over time in terms of the cost and complexity of projects, and the number of projects costing more than $500,000 in Afghanistan has reportedly increased from 9 in fiscal year 2004 to 129 in fiscal year 2008. As the program has matured, projects have become more complex, evolving from building small-scale projects such as wells that cost several thousand dollars to a boys’ dormitory construction project that cost several hundred thousand dollars to building roads that cost several million dollars. For example, of the $486 million that DOD obligated on CERP projects in fiscal year 2008, about $281 million was for transportation, which was largely for roads.

CJTF-101 guidance identifies the individuals authorized to approve CERP projects based on the estimated cost of the project (see table 1). As shown in the table, 90 percent of the CERP projects executed in Afghanistan in fiscal year 2008 cost $200,000 or less.

Management and execution of the CERP program is the responsibility of officials at CJTF-101 headquarters, the brigades and the PRTs. CJTF-101 personnel include the CERP manager who has the primary day-to-day responsibility for the program, a staff attorney responsible for reviewing all projects with a value of $200,000 or more, and a resource manager responsible for, among other things, maintaining CERP training records and tracking CERP obligations and expenditures. In addition, CJTF-101 guidance assigns responsibilities to the various staff sections such as engineering, medical, and contracting when specific projects require it. For example, the command engineering section is tasked with reviewing construction projects over $200,000, including reviewing plans for construction and project quality-assurance plans, and with participating in the CERP review boards. Similarly, the command’s surgeon general is responsible for coordinating all plans for construction, refurbishment, or equipping of health facilities with the Afghanistan Minister of Health and evaluating all project nominations over $200,000 that relate directly to healthcare or the healthcare field.

Brigade commanders are responsible for the overall execution of CERP in their areas of responsibilities and are tasked with a number of responsibilities including identifying and approving CERP projects, appointing project purchasing officers, and paying agents and ensuring that proper management, reporting, and fiscal controls are established to account for CERP funds. In addition, the brigade commander is responsible for ensuring that project purchasing officers and paying agents receive training and ensuring that all personnel comply with CERP guidance. Additional personnel in the brigade are tasked with specific day- to-day management of the CERP program for the brigade commander.

Table 2 details the activities of key individuals tasked with executing and managing CERP at the brigade level.

In addition to those tasked with day-to-day responsibility, others at the brigade have a role in the CERP process. For example, the brigade attorney is responsible for reviewing project nominations to ensure that they are legally sufficient and in compliance with CERP guidelines, and the brigade engineer is tasked with providing engineering expertise, including reviewing projects and assisting with oversight.

DOD is statutorily required to provide Congress with quarterly reports on the source, allocation and use of CERP funds. The reports are compiled based on information about the projects that is entered by unit officials into the Combined Information Data Network Exchange, a classified DOD database that not only captures operations and intelligence information, but also tracks information on CERP projects such as project status, project start and completion date, and dollars committed, obligated, and disbursed. This database is the third database that DOD has used since 2006 to track CERP projects in Afghanistan. According to a military official, some historical data on past projects were lost during the transfer of this information from previous database systems. CERP information is now available in an unclassified format to members of PRTs and others who have access to a network that can be used to share sensitive but unclassified information.

CERP Program Management and Project Oversight Is Hindered by Insufficient and Inadequately Trained Personnel

U. S. efforts to enhance Afghanistan’s development is costly and requires some complex projects, underscoring the need to effectively manage and oversee the CERP program, including effectively managing and overseeing contracting as well as contractor efforts. During our review, we identified problems with the availability of personnel to manage and oversee CERP, as well as the sufficiency of training on CERP.

Availability of Personnel

Although DOD has used CERP funds to construct roads, schools, and other projects that commanders believe have provided benefits to the Afghan people, DOD faces significant challenges in providing adequate management and oversight of CERP because of an insufficient number of trained personnel to execute and manage the program. We have frequently reported on several long-standing problems facing DOD as it uses contractors in contingency operations including inadequate numbers of trained management and oversight personnel. Our previous work has shown that high-performing organizations routinely use current, valid, and reliable data to make informed decisions about current and future workforce needs, including data on the appropriate number of employees, key competencies, and skill mix needed for mission accomplishment, and appropriate deployment of staff across the organization. DOD has not conducted a workforce assessment of CERP to identify how many military personnel are needed to effectively and efficiently execute and oversee the program. Rather, commanders determine how many personnel will manage and execute CERP. Personnel at all levels, including headquarters and unit personnel that we interviewed after they returned from Afghanistan or were in Afghanistan in November 2008, expressed a need for more personnel to perform CERP program management and oversight functions. Due to a lack of personnel, key duties such as performing headquarters staff assistance visits to help units to improve contracting procedures and site visits to monitor project status and contractor performance were either not performed or not consistently performed.

At the headquarters level, at the time of our review, CJTF-101 had designated one person to manage the day-to-day operations of CERP. Among many other tasks outlined in the CJTF-101 CERP guidance, the CJTF-101 CERP manager was responsible for conducting training for PPOs and PAs, providing oversight of all projects, ensuring proper coordination for all projects with the government of Afghanistan, validating performance metrics, ensuring that all project information is updated monthly in the command’s electronic database and conducting staff assistance visits semiannually or as requested by brigades. Staff assistance visits are conducted to assist units by identifying any additional training or guidance that may be required to ensure consistency in program execution. According to documents we reviewed, staff assistance visits conducted in the past have uncovered problems with project documentation, adhering to project guidelines, and project tracking, among others. The CJTF-101 CERP manager we interviewed during our visit to Afghanistan stated that he spent most of his time managing the headquarters review process of projects costing more than $200,000 and was unable to carry out his full spectrum of responsibilities, including conducting staff assistance visits. After our November 2008 visit to Afghanistan, CJTF-101 added additional personnel to manage CERP on a full-time basis.

Headquarters and brigade level personnel responsible for CERP also expressed a need for additional personnel at brigades to perform essential functions from program management to project execution. For example: CJTF-101 guidance assigns a number of responsibilities for executing CERP, including project monitoring and oversight, to military personnel; however, according to unit officials we spoke with, tasks such as completing project oversight and collecting metrics on completed projects are often not accomplished due to a lack of personnel. In a July 2008 memorandum to CENTCOM, the CJTF-101 commanding general noted that in some provinces, units have repositioned or are unable to do quality- assurance and quality-control checks due to competing missions and security risks. Furthermore, according to military officials from units that had deployed to Afghanistan, project oversight is frequently not provided because units lack the personnel needed to conduct site visits and ensure compliance with CERP contracts. For example, according to one CERP manager we spoke with, his unit was not able to provide oversight of 20 of the 27 CERP projects because it was often difficult to put together a team to conduct site visits due to competing demands for forces. Similarly, the competing demands for forces made it difficult for units to visit completed projects and determine the effectiveness of the projects as required by CERP guidance.

CJTF-101 guidance also requires units to consult subject-matter experts, such as engineers, when required. However, military officials stated that there is a lack of subject-matter experts to consult on some projects. For example, military personnel stated that agriculture experts are needed to assist on agriculture projects. Moreover, more public health officials are needed. A commander from one task force stated that his soldiers were not qualified to monitor and assess clinics because they did not have the proper training. Furthermore, several officials we spoke with, including officials at the CJTF-101 headquarters, noted that they needed additional civil/military affairs personnel to do project assessments both before projects are selected to determine which projects would be most appropriate and after projects are completed to measure the effectiveness of those projects. We recently reported that the lack of subject-matter experts puts DOD at risk of being unable to identify and correct poor contractor performance, which could affect the cost, completion, and sustainability of CERP projects.

Sufficiency of Training

According to DOD policy, members of the Department of Defense shall receive, to the maximum extent possible, timely and effective, individual, collective, and staff training, conducted in a safe manner, to enable performance to standard during operations. CERP familiarization wever, training may be provided to Army personnel before deployment; ho according to several Army officials, units frequently do not know who will be responsible for managing the CERP program until after they arrive in Afghanistan so task-specific training is generally not included in predeployment training. Others, such as PPOs, receive training after they arrived in Afghanistan. However, personnel assigned to manage and execute CERP had little or no training on their duties and responsibilities, and personnel we spoke with in Afghanistan and those who had recently returned from Afghanistan believed they needed more quality training in order to perform their missions effectively. For example: One of the attorneys responsible for reviewing and approving CERP projects received no CERP training before deploying. Unsure of how to interpret the guidance, the attorney sought clarification from higher headquarters, which delayed project approval.

Personnel from a U.S. Marine Corps unit that deployed to Afghanistan reported that they received no training on CERP prior to deployment and believed that such training would have been helpful to ensure that projects they selected would provide long-term benefits to the population in their area of operation.

Army training on CERP consisted of briefing slides that focused on the authorized and unauthorized uses of CERP but did not discuss how to complete specific CERP responsibilities such as project selection, developing a statement of work, selecting the appropriate contract type, or providing the appropriate types and levels of contract oversight. Additionally, according to officials from brigades we spoke with in Afghanistan, they received little or no training on their CERP responsibilities after arriving in-theater.

Military officials from PRTs also noted that they received little training on CERP prior to deploying to Afghanistan and felt that additional training was needed so that they could more easily perform their CERP duties.

In some cases, personnel told us that working with their predecessors during unit rotations provided them with sufficient training. However not all personnel have that opportunity.

Our reports as well as recent reports from others have highlighted the difficulties associated with contracting in contingency operations particularly for those personnel with little contracting experience. DOD’s Financial Management Regulation allows contracting officers to delegate the authority to PPOs to obligate funds for CERP contracts for projects valued at less than $500,000. Additionally, PPOs are involved in other activities such as writing the statement of work for each project, ensuring that the project is completed to contract specifications, and completing contract close out. During our visit to Afghanistan, we observed PPO training provided by the principal assistant responsible for contracting in Afghanistan. The training consisted of a 1-hour briefing, which included a detailed discussion of CERP guidance but did not provide detailed information on the duties of the PPO. For example, according to CJTF-101 guidance, contracts are to be supported by accurate cost estimates; however, the PPO briefing does not provide training on how to develop these estimates. All of the contracting officers we spoke with believe that the training brief provided is insufficient and noted that unlike PPOs, who have less training but more authority under CERP, warranted contracting officers have at least 1 year of experience and are required to take a significant amount of classroom training before they are allowed to award any contracts. Moreover, some PPOs we spoke with stated that they needed more training. Military officials at both the brigade and CJTF-101 level told us that inadequate training has led to some common mistakes in CERP contracts and CERP project files. For example, officials from PRTs, brigades, and the CJTF-101 level noted that statements of work often are missing key contract clauses or include clauses that are not appropriate and require revision. A training document provided by the principal assistant responsible for contracting identified several important clauses that are commonly omitted by PPOs including termination clauses, progress schedule clauses, and supervision and quality control clauses. As we have reported in the past, poorly written contracts and statements of work can increase the department’s cost risk and could result in the department paying for projects that do not meet project goals or objectives. Additionally, several officials at CJTF-101 with responsibilities for CERP also noted that project packages sent to the headquarters for review were often incomplete or incorrect, thereby, slowing down the CERP project approval process and increasing the workload of the CERP staff at both the headquarters and unit level. For example, the CJTF-101 official responsible for reviewing all projects valued at $200,000 or more noted that most of the project packets he reviewed had to be returned to the brigades because the packets lacked key documents, signatures, or other required information. Finally, the lack of training affects the quality of the oversight provided and can increase the risk of fraud. To illustrate, the Principal Deputy Inspector General Department of Defense testified in February 2009, that contingency contracting, specifically the Commander’s Emergency Response Program, is highly vulnerable to fraud and corruption due to a lack of oversight. He went on to state “it would appear that even a small amount of contract training provided through command channels and some basic ground-level oversight that does not impinge on the CERP’s objective would lower the risk in this susceptible area.”

DOD Lacks Visibility of Development Projects Being Undertaken By USAID

DOD and USAID participate in various mechanisms to facilitate coordination, but lack information that would provide greater visibility on all U.S. government development projects in Afghanistan. Teams have been formed in Afghanistan that integrate U.S. government civilians and military personnel to enhance coordination among U.S. agencies executing development projects in Afghanistan. For example, for projects involving roads, DOD and USAID officials have set up working groups to coordinate road construction and both agencies agreed that coordination on roads was generally occurring. Additionally, a USAID member is part of the PRT and sits regularly with military colleagues to coordinate and plan programming, according to USAID officials. Those same officials stated that this has resulted in joint programming and unity of effort, marrying CERP and USAID resources. Military officials we spoke with from several brigades also stated that coordination with the PRTs was good. Further, a USAID representative is located at the CJTF-101 headquarters and acts as a liaison to help coordinate projects costing $200,000 or more. Also, in November 2008, the Integrated Civilian-Military Action Group which consists of representatives from the Department of State, USAID, and U.S. Forces-Afghanistan was established at the U.S. Embassy in Kabul, to help unify U.S. efforts in Afghanistan through coordinated planning and execution, according to a document provided by USAID. The role of the Integrated Civilian-Military Action Group, which is expected to meet every 3 weeks, is to establish priorities and identify roles and responsibilities for both long-term and short-term development. Any decisions made by this group are then presented to the Executive Working Group-a group of senior military, State Department, and USAID officials-for approval. According to USAID officials, the Executive Working Group is empowered by the participating organizations to engage in coordinated planning and execution, provide guidance that synchronizes civilian and military efforts, convene interagency groups as appropriate, monitor and assess implementation and impact of integrated efforts, and recommend course changes to achieve U.S. government goals in support of the Government of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan and of achieving stability in Afghanistan.

Despite these interagency teams, military and USAID officials lack a common database that would promote information sharing and facilitate greater visibility of all development projects in Afghanistan. At the time of our review, development projects in Afghanistan were not tracked in a single database that was accessible by all parties conducting development in the country. For example, the military uses a classified database— Combined Information Data Network Exchange—to track CERP projects and other information. In early 2009, USAID officials were granted access to an unclassified portion of this database, providing them with information on the military’s CERP projects including project title, project location, project description, and name of the unit executing the project, among other information. On the other hand, USAID officials use a database called GEOBASE to track their development projects, and there are a myriad of other databases used to track individual development efforts. USAID officials stated that they did not believe military officials had access to GEOBASE. However, in our 2008 review of Afghanistan road projects, we reported that there was a DOD requirement to provide CERP project information to USAID via the GEOBASE system to provide a common operating picture of reconstruction projects for U.S. funded efforts. We found that this was not being done for the CERP-funded road projects and recommended that DOD do so, to which DOD concurred. At the time of our review, the requirement to input CERP project information into that database was not included in the most recent version of the CJTF-101 standard operating procedure. In a memorandum to CENTCOM, the commanding general of CJTF-101 noted that data on various development projects in Afghanistan are maintained in a wide range of formats making CERP data the only reliable data for the PRTs. In January 2009, USAID initiated a project to develop a unified database to capture reliable and verified data for all development projects in Afghanistan and make it accessible to all agencies engaging in development activities in the country. The goal for the database is to create visibility of development projects for all entities executing projects in Afghanistan in a single place. However, plans are preliminary and a number of questions remain including how the database will be populated and how the database development will be funded. USAID officials told us that they have been coordinating with CJTF-101 civil affairs officials about the development of the database and plan to hold a meeting in April 2009 to discuss recommendations for its development and to obtain input about the database from other U.S. government agencies. While USAID officials have conducted some assessments for the development of the centralized database, as of yet no specific milestones have been established for when that database will be complete. Without clear goals and a method to judge the progress of this initiative it is unclear how long this project might take or if it will ever be completed.

Conclusions

The expected surge in troops and expected increase in funding for Afghanistan heightens the need for an adequate number of trained personnel to execute and oversee CERP. With about $1 billion worth of CERP funds already spent to develop Afghanistan, it is crucial that individuals administering and executing the program are properly trained to manage all aspects of the program including management and oversight of the contractors used. If effective oversight is not conducted, DOD is at risk of being unable to verify the quality of contractor performance, track project status, or ensure that the program is being conducted in a manner consistent with guidance. Without such assurances, DOD runs the risk of wasting taxpayer dollars, squandering opportunities to positively influence the Afghan population and diminishing the effectiveness of a key program in the battle against extremist groups including the Taliban.

Although coordination mechanisms are in place to help increase visibility, eliminate project redundancy, and maximize the return on U.S. investments, the U.S. government lacks an easily accessible mechanism to identify previous and ongoing development projects. Without a mechanism to improve the visibility of individual development projects, the U.S. government may not be in a position to fully leverage the resources available to develop Afghanistan and risks duplicating efforts and wasting taxpayer dollars.

Recommendations for Executive Action

We recommend that the Secretary of Defense direct the commander of U.S. Central Command to evaluate workforce requirements and ensure adequate staff to administer establish training requirements for CERP personnel administering the program, to include specific information on how to complete their duties and responsibilities .

We further recommend that the Secretary of Defense and Administrator of USAID; collaborate to create a centralized project-development database for use by U.S. government agencies in Afghanistan, including establishing specific milestones for its development and implementation.

Agency Comments and Our Evaluation

In written comments to a draft of this report, DOD partially concurred with two of our recommendations and concurred with one. These comments are reprinted in appendix II.

DOD partially concurred with our recommendation to require U.S. Central Command to evaluate workforce requirements and ensure adequate staff to administer the Commander’s Emergency Response Program (CERP). DOD acknowledged the need to ensure adequate staff to administer CERP and noted that since our visit, U.S. Forces-Afghanistan had added personnel to manage the program on a full-time basis. Because of the actions already being taken, DOD believed that no further action is warranted at this time, but stated it would monitor the situation and respond as required. Although steps have been taken to improve management and oversight of CERP in Afghanistan, we still believe that CENTCOM should conduct a workforce assessment to identify the number of personnel needed to effectively manage and oversee the program. As we described in the report, in the absence of such an assessment, commanders determine how many personnel will manage and execute CERP. As commanders rotate in and out of Afghanistan, the number of people they assign to administer and oversee CERP could vary. Therefore, to ensure consistency, we continue to believe that CENTCOM, rather than individual commanders, should assess and determine the workforce needs for the program.

DOD partially concurred with our recommendation to establish training requirements for CERP personnel administering the program to include specific information on how to complete their duties and responsibilities. DOD acknowledged the need for training for CERP personnel administering the program and stated that since our visit, U.S. Forces- Afghanistan has begun work on implementing instructions to enhance selection processes and training programs for personnel administering the program and handling funding. Based on these efforts, DOD believed that no further action is warranted at this time but said it would monitor the situation and respond as required. However, the efforts outlined by DOD appear to be focused on training after personnel arrive in Afghanistan. Because our work also identified limitations in training prior to deployment, we believe that additional action is required, on the part of CENTCOM, to fully implement our recommendation.

DOD concurred with our recommendation to collaborate with USAID to create a centralized project-development database for use by U.S. government agencies in Afghanistan, including establishing specific milestones for its development and implementation.

USAID officials were given an opportunity to comment on the draft report. However, officials stated that they had no comments on the draft.

We are sending copies of this report to other interested congressional committees and the Secretary of Defense and Administrator of USAID. In addition, this report will be available at no charge on GAO’s Web site at http://www.gao.gov.

If you or your staff have any questions on the matters discussed in this report, please contact me at (202) 512-9619 or at pickups@gao.gov. Contact points for our Offices of Congressional Relations and Public Affairs may be found on the last page of this report. Key contributors to this report are listed in appendix III.

Appendix I: Scope and Methodology

To determine the extent to which the Department of Defense (DOD) has the capacity to provide adequate management and oversight of the CERP in Afghanistan, we reviewed guidance from DOD, Combined Joint Task Force-101 (CJTF-101), and Combined Joint Task Force-82 (CJTF-82) to identify roles and responsibilities of CERP personnel, how personnel are assigned to the CERP, the nature and extent of the workload related to managing and executing the CERP, and the training curriculum provided to familiarize personnel with the CERP. We traveled to Afghanistan and interviewed officials at higher command, including those responsible for the overall management of CERP at CJTF-101, as well as commanders, staff judge advocates, project purchasing officers, engineers, and CERP managers about how they administered, monitored, and provided oversight to the program, what training they received, and how personnel assigned to administer and manage the program were chosen. We also interviewed personnel at all levels to obtain their perspective on their ability to execute their assigned workload and sufficiency of training they received prior to deployment and upon arrival in Afghanistan and attended a training session that was provided to Project Purchasing Officers (PPO). Additionally, we interviewed officials at the Office of the Secretary of Defense (Comptroller) and the Office of the Assistant Secretary of the Army (Financial Management and Comptroller), as well as Marine Corps and Army units that had returned from Afghanistan about the type of management and oversight that exists for CERP and the quality of that oversight. We selected these units (1) based on Afghanistan deployment and redeployment dates; (2) to ensure that we obtained information from officials at the division, brigade, and Provincial Reconstruction Team (PRT) levels who had direct experience with CERP; and (3) because unit officials had not yet been transferred to other locations within the United States or abroad.

In order to determine the extent to which commanders coordinate CERP projects with USAID, we reviewed and analyzed DOD, CJTF-101, and CJTF-82 guidance to determine what coordination, if any, was required. We also interviewed military officials at the headquarters, brigade, and PRT levels that had redeployed from Afghanistan between July 2008 and April 2009 to determine the extent of their coordination with USAID officials. We also met with USAID officials in Washington, D.C., as well as traveled to Afghanistan and interviewed officials at the CJTF-101 headquarters, brigade, PRT, as well as, USAID about their coordination efforts.

We spoke with military officials about the database they use to track CERP projects-Combined Information Data Network Exchange (CIDNE)—and learned that some historical data on past projects was lost during the transfer of information from a previous database to CIDNE. However, the information is in the project files and had already been included in the quarterly reports to Congress. Therefore, we analyzed the reported obligations in the quarterly CERP reports to Congress for fiscal year 2004 to fiscal year 2008 and interviewed officials about information contained in the reports. Based on interviews with officials, we determined that these data are sufficiently reliable for the purpose of this report.

Department of Defense

Department of the Army

Department of the Navy

Other government agencies

United States Agency for International Development, Washington, D.C. United States Agency for International Development, Kabul, Afghanistan Department of State, Washington, D.C.

We conducted this performance audit from July 2008 to April 2009 in accordance with generally accepted government accounting standards. Those standards require that we plan and perform the audit to obtain sufficient, appropriate evidence to provide a reasonable basis for our findings and conclusions based on our audit objectives. We believe that the evidence obtained provides a reasonable basis for our findings and conclusions based on our audit objectives.

Appendix II: Comments from the Department of Defense

Appendix III: GAO Contacts and Staff Acknowledgements

GAO Contact

Acknowledgements

In addition to the contact named above, Carole Coffey, Assistant Director; Susan Ditto, Rodney Fair, Karen Nicole Harms, Ron La Due Lake, Marcus Oliver, and Sonja Ware made key contributions to this report.

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