Military Personnel: The DOD and Coast Guard Academies Have Taken Steps to Address Incidents of Sexual Harassment and Assault, but Greater Federal Oversight Is Needed

In its February 2010 report on sexual assault in the military services, GAO reported that OSD and its stakeholders have started to create a standardized set of sexual assault data elements and definitions. However, the standardization is not yet complete, and OSD officials stated that developing definitions and data elements for and training the numerous program personnel worldwide on how to consistently report on the data elements collected, is very complex and time-consuming. OSD officials added that the standardization of data definitions is something that they expect to accomplish in the near term, while standardizing data elements will take longer since it is a task that will be completed in conjunction with their development of a centralized sexual assault database. In May 2011, DOD's efforts to standardize data elements and definitions is ongoing and OSD officials asserted that this will be completed in conjunction with the implementation of the Defense Sexual Assault Incident Database, which is expected to be operational in 2012. In January 2012, GAO met with officials in the Sexual Assault Prevention and Response Office (SAPRO) who provided templates that it gave to the military services to request data for fiscal year 2011 and 2012. GAO reviewed those templates and found that SAPRO defines each data term to help ensure that the services are using common terminology when compiling their data. GAO agrees that this template constitutes a clear articulation of data reporting requirements and includes common terminology. Therefore, GAO considers this recommendation to be implemented.

In February 2010, GAO reported that OSD had developed an oversight framework for its sexual assault prevention and response (SAPR) programs, but that it does not yet contain performance measures, which are needed to facilitate the evaluation of program performance and the identification of areas needing improvement. Currently, OSD has plans to develop a standardized set of performance measures and targets by the second year of its 3-year plan for implementing its oversight framework. While this finding generally refers to the military service's SAPR programs, it also applies to the academies in that each academy is governed by its corresponding service's policies. In May 2011, OSD officials told us that they were continuing to work towards the development of performance measures, but that efforts to reorganize the Sexual Assault Prevention and Response Office had slowed progress in this area. In January 2012, GAO met with SAPRO officials who provided a copy of the Defense Manpower Data Center

In January 2012, we met with officials in OSD's Sexual Assault Prevention and Response Office (SAPRO) to discuss improvements to DOD?s Annual Report on Sexual Harassment and Violence at the Military Service Academies. SAPRO indicated that the academy report for APY 2010-2011 included the elements we recommended in 2008 as necessary to improve the usefulness of the report. Following the meeting, we reviewed the report and found that the report did address the elements of our recommendation by including things such as an assessment of compliance and the identification of best practices, action items, and program deficiencies. Therefore, we agree that the inclusion of these elements constitutes a comprehensive integrated assessment of academy sexual assault and harassment programs.