DOD Financial Management: Additional Actions Would Improve Reporting of Joint Strike Fighter Assets

Department of Defense The Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment together with the F-35 Program Executive Officer, and in coordination with the Under Secretary of Defense (Comptroller), should develop and document a comprehensive strategy to address the JSF material weakness. The strategy should include (1) complete, detailed procedures; (2) time frames based on an analysis of the time needed to accomplish the procedures; and (3) resources required to design and implement the procedures. (Recommendation 1)

When we confirm what actions the agency has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.

Department of Defense The Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment together with the F-35 Program Executive Officer should develop and document a plan for verifying the completeness of JSF assets recorded in its APSR, including conducting an analysis and documenting the results on the feasibility of performing a wall-to-wall inventory to capture all JSF assets. (Recommendation 2)

When we confirm what actions the agency has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.

Department of Defense The Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment together with the F-35 Program Executive Officer should develop procedures for performing physical inventories of JSF assets held at DOD and international partner facilities. To the extent that the procedures include the F-35 JPO relying on these facilities’ staff to perform the physical inventory counts, the office should develop and document a plan that describes how the F-35 JPO plans to review the results of these inventory procedures in order to verify the existence and completeness of the recorded amounts of JSF assets at these locations. (Recommendation 3)

When we confirm what actions the agency has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.

Department of Defense The Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment together with the F-35 Program Executive Officer should develop procedures for performing periodic physical inventories once the initial inventory count has been completed, including how DOD will assess the resources and time needed to conduct the inventories and any sampling methodology intended to be used. (Recommendation 4)

When we confirm what actions the agency has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.

Department of Defense The Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment together with the F-35 Program Executive Officer should develop procedures that outline the steps to periodically capture and verify the accuracy and completeness of JSF asset data from contractors and other DOD sources to be recorded in DPAS until a direct interface with the prime contractors’ systems has been established. (Recommendation 5)

When we confirm what actions the agency has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.

Department of Defense The Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment together with the F-35 Program Executive Officer should finalize the business rules within DPAS to identify and populate default characters for missing data elements in JSF asset property records. (Recommendation 6)

When we confirm what actions the agency has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.

Department of Defense The Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment together with the F-35 Program Executive Officer, and in consultation with the Under Secretary of Defense (Comptroller), should finalize and implement procedures to calculate deemed cost for all JSF assets that lack documentation of historical cost data. The procedures should include the preferred deemed cost valuation methodologies and steps to prepare and retain supporting documentation for all property records created using deemed cost. (Recommendation 7)

When we confirm what actions the agency has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.

Department of Defense The Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment together with the F-35 Program Executive Officer should develop procedures to capture and record new JSF asset transactions and retain supporting documentation to support the recorded transactions after beginning balances are recorded using deemed cost. (Recommendation 8)

When we confirm what actions the agency has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.

Department of Defense The Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment together with the F-35 Program Executive Officer should identify a complete list of JSF software applications that meet DOD’s reporting criteria. (Recommendation 9)

When we confirm what actions the agency has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.

Department of Defense The Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment together with the F-35 Program Executive Officer should develop policies and procedures to record and report new JSF internal-use software development costs. (Recommendation 10)

When we confirm what actions the agency has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.

Department of Defense The Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment together with the F-35 Program Executive Officer should analyze the significance of purchase-related subsequent transportation costs on financial reporting of JSF asset balances. As needed, the office should either document the decision and rationale for not capturing these costs or develop policies and procedures for capturing and recording JSF asset purchase-related subsequent transportation costs for financial reporting. (Recommendation 11)

When we confirm what actions the agency has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.

Department of Defense The Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment, in collaboration with the Under Secretary of Defense (Comptroller), should determine and document whether information on joint programs needed for reporting purposes is sufficiently maintained and whether a central data source and standard definition would be appropriate to help ensure consistent, complete, and accurate tracking, recording, and reporting of joint program information. (Recommendation 12)

When we confirm what actions the agency has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.