The Army began developing AWPS in 1996 at the direction of the House National Security Committee (now known as the House Armed Services Committee), and started fielding the system to its maintenance depots that year. AWPS was not intended to directly replace any single existing system; rather it was aimed at resolving deficiencies in the Army’s civilian manpower requirements determination process by providing analytically based workload forecasts to support workforce requirements. In 1998, the committee further directed the Army to develop a master plan for implementing AWPS. We subsequently reviewed the master plan and recommended, among other things, that the Army examine its existing program management and oversight structure as it continued to implement AWPS. The Department of Defense (DOD) concurred with the recommendations and cited corrective actions it would take, including having the Secretary of the Army assess the adequacy of existing program management and oversight structures responsible for system development and implementation. In June 2001, the Army sent an updated master plan to the House and Senate Committees on Armed Services. Section 346 of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2002 encouraged the sharing of data between AWPS and LMP (which had been in development since 1999) and identified several requirements related to AWPS. Among other things, the law required: the Army to continue to use AWPS as a standard Army-wide manpower system under the supervision and management of the Secretary of the Army; the Secretary of the Army to submit annual progress reports to Congress on the implementation of the AWPS master plan until the Secretary certifies to Congress that AWPS is fully implemented; and GAO to submit evaluations of each of the Army’s annual reports not later than 60 days after the Army has issued them to Congress. We evaluated the Army’s May 2002 progress report to Congress and recommended several actions to improve the quality of the Army’s annual progress reports and enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of AWPS. DOD concurred with our recommendations and stated that it would take steps to implement them. For example, the Army said it was in the final stages of updating the AWPS master plan and that it would provide it to Congress by November 2007. However, the Army ultimately did not submit an updated master plan. In our most recent report on AWPS in July 2011, we found that the Army was using AWPS to generate reports related to managing its workload and workforce issues but that the accuracy of those reports varied. We also found that the Army’s oversight of AWPS was fragmented among several organizations and that the Army had not been submitting annual reports on the implementation of the 2002 AWPS master plan. Accordingly, we recommended that an organization be identified for overall oversight of AWPS and that annual reports on AWPS implementation be submitted to Congress, as required by law. The Army concurred with these recommendations and stated that it would update the master plan and report to Congress by October 2011. We discuss later in this report the status of the Army’s efforts to address this recommendation. AWPS has several modules that enable users to generate products that include the workload and resources report, which compares forecast workload against the available workforce; performance management and control tables, which assess the cost and schedule performance for production programs; and a report used by AMC leadership to monitor the status of efforts to repair and recapitalize equipment returning from overseas operations. To do so, AWPS pulls LMP data on labor costs as well as the personnel time required to complete repairs, among other things. Officials from Army G-4 (Maintenance) also use AWPS reports to assess whether the Army is maintaining a core depot-level maintenance and repair capability. As of October 2013, approximately 1,400 personnel had access to the system at 15 AMC industrial sites. The Army spent approximately $1.4 billion on LMP through fiscal year 2012, and its total life cycle cost from fiscal years 2000 to 2026 is more than $4 billion. According to the AWPS program management office, the Army has spent over $90 million on AWPS from its inception in 1996 through the end of fiscal year 2013. Table 1 shows the Army’s reported actual and projected AWPS costs from fiscal year 2011—when we issued our last report on AWPS—through fiscal year 2018. The costs include government and contractor personnel expenses and hardware and software upgrades. The Army has not submitted the required annual progress reports to Congress on the implementation of the AWPS master plan since 2002. Section 346 of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2002 requires the Secretary of the Army to submit annual progress reports to Congress on the implementation of the AWPS master plan until the Secretary certifies to Congress that AWPS is fully implemented. The Army submitted its first AWPS progress report to Congress in 2002 in the form of a revised version of the AWPS master plan. Although the Secretary of the Army has not yet certified to Congress that AWPS is fully implemented, the Army has not submitted any further annual reports. Because we recommended in July 2011 that the Army submit annual reports on the implementation of the AWPS master plan, as required by law, we are not making a new recommendation on this issue in this report. The Army has not been submitting annual reports because, according to Army officials, it does not plan to submit progress reports until the revised master plan is completed. Army officials stated that AMC, in coordination with other Army offices, has been drafting an update to the AWPS master plan since July 2011—when GAO’s last report on AWPS was issued—in order to reflect changes regarding AWPS status and future use. However, it has not yet been completed and submitted to Congress, and officials were uncertain when that would occur. The AWPS master plan is still important, as AWPS has not yet been certified as fully implemented. According to officials, the Army has not completed the AWPS master plan due to oversight challenges arising from a series of internal reorganizations and multiple transfers of responsibility for AWPS within the Army. Another contributing factor, according to AMC officials, was the loss of personnel with knowledge of AWPS that has occurred since the AWPS master plan was last updated in 2002. In response to one of our July 2011 recommendations, the Army identified the Office of the Assistant Secretary of the Army (Manpower and Reserve Affairs) as the Army organization with overall oversight of AWPS. However, we did not find evidence that this office has had an active role in overseeing the completion of the AWPS master plan. Internal control standards identify the need for oversight, including responsibilities such as setting and monitoring objectives, as important. In the absence of oversight, completion of the AWPS master plan could be further delayed, resulting in continued lack of submission of annual progress reports on AWPS implementation to Congress. The Army has not validated AWPS as a manpower requirements determination tool as required by regulation. In October 2001, the Secretary of the Army designated AWPS as an Army-wide decision support, manpower determination, and management tool for applicable workload and workforce in the Army. According to Army regulation, USAMAA is responsible for reviewing and validating manpower requirements models. Army Regulation 570-4, which establishes policies and procedures for manpower management, states that USAMAA is responsible for reviewing and recommending approval of manpower requirements models developed by major commands. Army Regulation 71-32, which establishes policy for force development and documentation, states that the Assistant Secretary of the Army (Manpower and Reserve Affairs), to which USAMAA provides assistance, is responsible for validating manpower models. Such reviews are to occur at least every 3 years, or more often as needed, and are part of USAMAA’s responsibility to ensure consistent application of Army manpower policies. Army regulation also states that major commands— such as AMC—are responsible for submitting manpower models to USAMAA for approval, along with background information to support assumptions and equations in existing and proposed models. According to USAMAA officials, AWPS has not been validated as a manpower requirements determination tool in accordance with Army regulation, and therefore they cannot be assured that AWPS reports on workforce requirements are accurate. USAMAA officials stated that they have previously asked AMC whether it would submit AWPS for review and validation, but AMC has not yet done so. USAMAA officials told us they contacted AMC in late 2011 or early 2012 regarding submitting AWPS for validation. At the time, AMC was not prepared to move forward with validation. However, officials from the AWPS program management office told us that in April 2012 they asked for assistance from USAMAA regarding submitting AWPS for validation, but that additional assistance had not yet been provided. Because USAMAA officials involved in these earlier contacts subsequently left USAMAA, we were unable to corroborate that USAMAA did not respond to AWPS program management officials’ requests for assistance. A senior official within the Office of the Assistant Secretary of the Army (Manpower and Reserve Affairs) told us that USAMAA had provided assistance to the AWPS program management office but that AWPS had not been formally submitted for review and validation. USAMAA has published written guidance on how to develop and validate a manpower modeling tool. This guidance is designed for developing new tools and is not tailored for submission of an existing tool, such as AWPS, for validation. For example, the primary validation process identified in the guidance begins at the outset of the model-development process, which is not applicable for an existing tool. However, USAMAA officials provided us with an explanation of what would be necessary to validate AWPS as a manpower requirements determination tool and indicated that they work collaboratively with Army organizations to support the model-validation process. The process would include a briefing from AMC that demonstrates the AWPS manpower model. USAMAA officials could also ask AMC for further information on the model. USAMAA would then test the model to ensure the accuracy of what was presented by AMC.