Shipping containers are reusable intermodal enclosures or flat, open platforms that meet International Organization for Standardization (ISO) container standards and are intended to be loaded with cargo and shipped on or in a transportation conveyance. The containers DOD uses are typically 20 to 40 feet long and 8 feet wide, some of which are refrigerated for perishable goods.equipment and supplies to destinations in support of troops conducting military operations worldwide, including Afghanistan. In austere environments, DOD also uses containers for many other purposes such as providing secure storage for goods and using container walls for force protection. DOD uses containers to transport The containers DOD has managed in the CENTCOM area of responsibility, including in Afghanistan, are owned or leased by DOD; owned by coalition partners; owned by contractors supporting DOD; or owned by commercial carriers operating under DOD’s Universal Services Contract. The Universal Services Contract provides international cargo transportation and distribution services using ocean common or contract carriers, and offers regularly scheduled commercial liner service for requirements that may arise in any part of the world. The contract is primarily for DOD requirements and applies to services performed in peacetime and exigency areas. Contract provisions include detention-fee rates, container purchase options and prices, and maximum detention-fee accrual periods, among other provisions. When carriers deliver goods using their own containers, DOD has a contractually specified number of days to return a container before incurring added fees—defined as “free- time” in the contract. After the free-time period ends, DOD accrues daily detention fees until the carrier is notified that an empty container is available for pickup. Under various circumstances, the contract also allows DOD to acquire a carrier’s container, either through the payment of a maximum amount of detention fees, or through payment of a contractually set purchase price after a minimum amount of detention fees has been paid. As of August 2014, DOD’s container-management system comprises two key information management systems—the U.S. Transportation Command’s Integrated Booking System/Container Management Module and the Army Container Asset Management System—along with the persons and organizations using, updating, and managing the two systems. The Surface Deployment and Distribution Command and CENTCOM use the Integrated Booking System/Container Management Module as their container-management system. The system provides data on all container ownership types used in theater including government-owned or leased, coalition partner-owned, and carrier-owned containers in theater and estimates detention costs for containers that are not returned to carrier owners prior to the end of the free-time period. The Army Container Asset Management System records all containers in DOD’s inventory and serves as the official property record for Army- owned containers. From the Army Container Asset Management System, personnel can conduct studies on Army container status, location, and disposition from data entered into the system by its users and data feeds from other sources. Detention fees, purchase prices, and maximum detention-fee accrual periods in Iraq and Afghanistan varied, according to the Universal Services Contract, depending on the size of a container and whether the container is refrigerated. For example, in 2013, detention fees for carrier- owned containers ranged from $22 to $127 per day and could accrue over periods ranging from 350 days to 700 days, at which point DOD would become the de facto owner. Containers could also be purchased prior to these maximum periods, but only after a minimum period of detention is paid: 60 days for containers shipped under the 2013 Universal Services Contract or 90 days for containers shipped under previous contracts. Purchase prices in 2013 ranged from $2,880 to $31,500 depending on the size of a container and whether the container was refrigerated. Figure 1 shows detention fees DOD accrued from fiscal years 2003 through 2012. Fiscal year 2013 and 2014 data are excluded from this figure because detention fees can accrue over a period of 350 to 700 days; therefore, payment of these fees for containers leased in a given fiscal year may extend into subsequent fiscal years. Moreover, until a contract is closed out, the contractor may continue to make detention- fee claims. Since the early years of operations in Afghanistan and Iraq, DOD officials have made efforts to improve container management in the CENTCOM area of responsibility. One way they continue to improve container management is by either updating existing or developing new container- management policy and guidance. To do so, they incorporated recommendations by DOD audit agencies and other organizations aimed at improving container management. However, it is uncertain whether all of the recommendations have been incorporated into DOD policy as appropriate because the department does not have a comprehensive list of the recommendations that have been made over the years. Since the early years of operations in Afghanistan and Iraq, DOD officials have made efforts to improve container management in the CENTCOM area of responsibility. One way they continue to improve container management is by either updating existing or developing new container management policy and guidance based on recommendations made by DOD audit agencies as well as other organizations. Specifically, these policy and guidance changes have addressed various aspects of container management including: (1) doctrine and planning for the use of containers in a contingency environment, (2) leadership’s responsibility for container management, and (3) efforts to improve the tracking and inventorying of containers. Doctrinal and planning guidance for Army units with distribution responsibilities in the CENTCOM area of responsibility, which includes responsibility for container management, is contained in three documents: Army Regulation 56-4: Distribution of Materiel and Distribution Platform Management, published in March 2007 and revised in September 2014; Army Theater Distribution, published in May 2011; and Army Container Operations, published in May 2013. However, according to Army officials, both Army Theater Distribution and Army Container Operations were informed by a recommendation made in a 2008 Army Audit Agency report that container management in a contingency environment be integrated into doctrine and planning. In addition, Army officials noted that these documents also address a 2011 Army Audit Agency recommendation that lessons learned about container management for ongoing and future contingencies be institutionalized in the contingency planning process. Leadership’s responsibility for container management in the CENTCOM area of responsibility is addressed in the Container Detention memorandum signed by both the commander of U.S. Transportation Command and CENTCOM in August 2012.Transportation Command officials, this memorandum was published as a direct result of a recommendation made in a Joint Logistics Board report, also published in 2012, that included additional recommendations aimed at enhancing senior leaders’ understanding of container-management challenges and detention-fee payments and enforcing compliance with previously published container-management policy as outlined in CENTCOM’s Container Management Letter of Instruction. Specifically, the Container Detention memorandum states that compliance with CENTCOM’s Container Management Letter of Instruction is mandatory and that all subordinate commanders in theater are to ensure that their respective units embrace container-management and detention-fee reduction goals. Moreover, the Container Detention memorandum states that subordinate commanders in the CENTCOM theater should report container transactions in order to track the receipt, location, and discharge of containers in accordance with procedures also specified in the CENTCOM Container Management Letter of Instruction. According to U.S. The tracking and inventorying of containers in the CENTCOM area of responsibility is addressed in the aforementioned CENTCOM Container Management Letter of Instruction, initially issued in 2006 according to U.S. Transportation Command officials and periodically updated thereafter, most recently in January 2014. In this letter, CENTCOM emphasizes the necessity for the timely entry of data for all containers moving into, within, or out of the CENTCOM area of responsibility; stresses the importance of maintaining accurate theater-wide container inventories through a robust inventory management program; and details the roles and responsibilities of the various DOD organizations that constitute the theater container- management structure. According to CENTCOM officials, the CENTCOM Container Management Letter of Instruction and its periodic updates address concerns raised by Army Audit Agency reports from 2005 and 2009 and the Joint Logistics Board’s report of 2012 that recommended enhancing and clarifying the authority of the theater container-management structure; conducting physical inventories of containers in order to better track them; and completing property-management functions for containers purchased in the CENTCOM area of responsibility. Notwithstanding DOD’s efforts to improve container management in the CENTCOM area of responsibility by either updating existing or developing new policy and guidance in response to recommendations made by DOD and other organizations, DOD cannot ensure recommendations have been addressed in policy and guidance as appropriate. This is because, according to DOD officials, no single office or entity within the department has comprehensively identified all of the reports and recommendations the various DOD and other organizations have made to improve container management in the CENTCOM area of responsibility. Standards for Internal Control in the Federal Government call for an organization’s internal control processes to ensure that the findings of audits and other reviews are promptly resolved. When we asked key officials from DOD organizations that play some role in or have some responsibility for container management to identify what, if any, steps had been taken to address recommendations that have been made by DOD and other organizations, the officials responded that this information was not easily available without extensive work to compile. Because DOD could not provide us with a comprehensive list of reports and their associated recommendations addressing container- management challenges in the CENTCOM area of responsibility, we conducted our own literature search and subsequently compiled a list of 25 reports and reviews issued by DOD and other organizations from 2003 through 2013. Included in these reviews and reports are 95 recommendations aimed at improving container management in the CENTCOM area of responsibility (see table 1).