National Personnel Records Center: Plan Needed to Show How	 
Timeliness Goal Will Be Achieved (31-MAY-01, GAO-01-599).	 
								 
The National Personnel Records Center (NPRC) maintains the	 
official military personnel records of discharged servicemembers.
Veterans need their records for various reasons, from obtaining  
GI bill education benefits and home loan guarantees, to arranging
burial in national cemeteries. However,veterans have experienced 
delays in obtaining documentation of their military service from 
NPRC. This report evaluates NPRC's timeliness in responding to	 
veterans' requests for records. GAO reviews (1) how long it takes
NPRC to answer veterans' requests for records and (2) whether	 
actions NPRC is taking will improve response time. GAO found that
in fiscal year 2000, NPRC took an average of 54 days to respond  
to written requests for records, answering about six percent of  
written requests within 10 working days.  NPRC efforts to respond
more quickly are unlikely to significantly improve timeliness	 
soon, and prospects for meeting its goal of answering 95 percent 
of requests within 10 working days by 2005 are not clear.	 
-------------------------Indexing Terms------------------------- 
REPORTNUM:   GAO-01-599 					        
    ACCNO:   A01052						        
  TITLE:     National Personnel Records Center: Plan Needed to Show   
             How Timeliness Goal Will Be Achieved                             
     DATE:   05/31/2001 
  SUBJECT:   Archives						 
	     Federal records management 			 
	     Military discharges				 
	     Military personnel records 			 
	     Reengineering (management) 			 
	     Strategic planning 				 
	     Veterans						 

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GAO-01-599
     
Report to Congressional Requesters

United States General Accounting Office

GAO

May 2001 NATIONAL PERSONNEL RECORDS CENTER

Plan Needed to Show How Timeliness Goal Will be Achieved

GAO- 01- 599

Page i GAO- 01- 599 National Personnel Records Center Letter 1

Appendix Comments from the National Archives and Records Administration 13

Figures

Figure 1: Central Corridor of Typical Storage Area 4 Figure 2: Row of
Records in Typical Storage Area 5 Figure 3: Backlog of Requests at NPRC at
End of Fiscal Year 9

Abbreviations

NARA National Archives and Records Administration NPRC National Personnel
Records Center VBA Veterans Benefits Administration Contents

Page 1 GAO- 01- 599 National Personnel Records Center

May 31, 2001 The Honorable Tom Harkin The Honorable Paul Wellstone The
Honorable Tom Daschle The Honorable John D. Rockefeller IV United States
Senate

The Honorable Lane Evans House of Representatives

The National Personnel Records Center (NPRC), part of the National Archives
and Records Administration (NARA), is responsible for maintaining the
official military personnel records of discharged members of the military
services. 1 In fiscal year 2000, NPRC answered about 1.4 million inquiries,
including over 700,000 written requests for document copies and information
extracted from records. 2 Veterans and their representatives depend on NPRC
for timely and accurate responses to their requests for records. A survey of
requests completed by NPRC during a 1- month period in 2000 showed that the
majority of requests were from veterans themselves. 3 Veterans frequently
need their records for a variety of reasons, such as obtaining disability
compensation, health benefits, GI bill education benefits, home loan
guarantees, and burial in national cemeteries. However, access to these
benefits has been hampered due to delays in obtaining documentation of their
military service from NPRC. For example, the Veterans Benefits
Administration had cited waiting to obtain information from NPRC as a
significant factor affecting its timeliness in completing veterans?
disability compensation claims and has established a unit at the NPRC to
obtain needed information more quickly.

1 The NPRC consists of the Military Personnel Records Center and the
Civilian Personnel Records Center. For this report, NPRC refers to the
activities of the Military Personnel Records Center.

2 The NPRC measures timeliness for these written requests. The remaining
inquiries received consisted of referring requests to other agencies,
returning requests to requesters for more information, returning records to
military departments, and transferring records to other agencies.

3 Other requesters included the Department of Veterans Affairs and other
federal agencies (15 percent), veterans? next of kin (9 percent), and state
and local governments (6 percent).

United States General Accounting Office Washington, DC 20548

Page 2 GAO- 01- 599 National Personnel Records Center

This report responds to your request that we evaluate NPRC?s timeliness in
responding to veterans? requests for records. The objectives of our review
were to determine (1) how long it takes NPRC to answer veterans? requests
for records and (2) whether actions NPRC is taking will improve response
time. To address these issues, we reviewed timeliness and workload data
provided by NPRC. We discussed timeliness goals, reasons for any delays, and
actions NPRC is taking to improve response time with NARA and NPRC
officials. We also visited NPRC?s records facility in St. Louis, Missouri,
and other public and private sector records management organizations to
observe their records management practices. We conducted our review between
August 2000 and April 2001 in accordance with generally accepted government
auditing standards.

In fiscal year 2000, NPRC took an average of 54 days to respond to written
requests for records, answering about 6 percent of written requests within
10 working days. NPRC?s long- term goal is to answer 95 percent of requests
within 10 working days by fiscal year 2005. NPRC officials attribute delays
primarily to the current backlog of requests waiting to be processed. They
attribute initial growth in the backlog to the loss of 43 employees out of a
staff of 273 in fiscal year 1995 and more recent growth to the disruptions
caused by its ongoing effort to reengineer its outmoded, manual process for
responding to record requests.

Actions that NPRC is taking to respond more quickly are unlikely to
significantly improve timeliness soon, and prospects for meeting its fiscal
year 2005 goal are not clear. To improve response time, NPRC is having staff
work overtime in an attempt to control the backlog while it is implementing
its business reengineering project, which includes reorganizing and
relocating staff, introducing new staffing roles and responsibilities, and
providing computer capabilities. However, even with NPRC?s overtime the
backlog grew by about 69,000 cases to 214,000 cases in the first 6 months of
fiscal year 2001. In addition, NPRC officials believe that as employees
continue adjusting to a new processing approach, the backlog will get worse,
growing to over 240,000 cases by December 2001. It is also unclear whether
NPRC?s actions will enable it to meet its longterm goal. NPRC does not yet
have a plan that shows how it will achieve its fiscal year 2005 timeliness
goal. This is due, in part, to the lack of data, such as the level of
production NPRC can achieve in the reengineered environment, that is needed
to develop an adequate plan. NPRC is currently developing such data.
Furthermore, NPRC is depending on certain computer technologies, such as
electronic receipt of requests and Results in Brief

Page 3 GAO- 01- 599 National Personnel Records Center

access to other agency data bases, to significantly improve timeliness.
However, these computer technologies have not yet been implemented.

We are recommending that NPRC develop a plan that shows what is needed to
meet its fiscal year 2005 goal and how its use of overtime and reengineering
will enable it to meet those needs.

NARA provided comments on a draft of this report. NARA agreed with our
recommendation and provided additional information.

NPRC maintains the personnel and medical records of nearly all former
members of the U. S. military service departments who served during the
twentieth century and responds to requests for these records. The records
maintained by NARA are the property of the Department of Defense (DoD),
which reimburses NARA for storing and servicing the records. 4

NARA maintains DoD?s records at the Military Personnel Records facility in
St. Louis, Missouri, which opened in 1955 for this purpose. Although the
building experienced a major fire in 1973 that destroyed some records, 5 it
currently contains about 55 million military personnel records and an
additional 39 million auxiliary records such as military pay vouchers. The
records- paper copy- are kept in cardboard boxes stacked on 10 foot high
shelves. They are filed in sections according to branch of service, time
period of service, or date of transfer to NPRC. Within the sections, records
are filed alphabetically, by service number or by registry number (a
sequential numbering system). Each box is marked with the name or number of
the first record in the box to identify its contents. Figure 1 shows the
central corridor of a typical storage area, and figure 2 shows a typical row
of records in the storage area.

4 NARA?s Federal Record Center Program was converted to a fee- for- service
program effective as of fiscal year 2000. 5 The fire destroyed about 80
percent of the records for Army personnel discharged between November 1,
1912, and January 1, 1960. About 75 percent of the records for Air Force
personnel with surnames from ?Hubbard? through ?Z? discharged between
September 25, 1947, and January 1, 1964, were also destroyed. Since there
were no indices to the records involved, and millions of records were on
loan to the Veterans Administration at the time of the fire, precisely which
records were destroyed is not known. Background

Page 4 GAO- 01- 599 National Personnel Records Center

Figure 1: Central Corridor of Typical Storage Area

Source: National Archives and Records Administration

Page 5 GAO- 01- 599 National Personnel Records Center

Figure 2: Row of Records in Typical Storage Area

Source: National Archives and Records Administration

Prior to 1999, NPRC operated in the same fashion as it had since the 1950s,
when its building first opened. Request processing was manual and labor

Page 6 GAO- 01- 599 National Personnel Records Center

intensive. Only recently has the NPRC begun to make computers and other
technology available to its staff that processes requests. Even telephones
were not installed on employees? desks until February 2000. The
prereengineering philosophy was that having telephones on the desks of all
technicians might reduce productivity. As a result of not having telephones
on their desks, technicians generally did not contact requesters to obtain
additional information to assist them in locating the requested military
service record or to clarify an unclear request. In the past, requests that
were unclear and could not be clarified were returned to the requester. For
requests that were clear, staff located the appropriate cardboard box,
pulled the record, processed the request, and later returned the record. For
each request, staff created a reply using forms with preprinted responses
that could be checked off. The forms were handwritten and sent out with the
relevant record copies.

NPRC was organized by branches of service- the Army, Navy and Air Force- and
each branch processed its own records. Technicians were assigned work based
on the level of difficulty of the tasks required to fulfill the requests.
These tasks could range from simply photocopying a form to formulating
complex correspondence. More complex cases were assigned to higher pay grade
employees. However, the division of workload among branches and pay grades
made it difficult to respond to fluctuations in workload and affected
timeliness and customer service, according to NPRC officials.

In 1997, NPRC began an ongoing business process reengineering project to
improve timeliness among other things. 6 In February 1999, a pilot team
began using the new work processes. When the reengineering project is fully
implemented, NPRC will be organized into five units or cores. As of March
2001, four of the cores had been implemented. Each core will process
requests pertaining to records of veterans in all military services. Within
the cores, each technician is expected to be able to process requests of
varying levels of difficulty. In addition, NPRC is introducing computer
technology into its processing. NPRC has implemented an interim computer
system with the capability to track requests electronically, identify
duplicate requests, and access prior responses concerning a record.
Ultimately, NPRC expects to implement a more capable computer system that,
among other things, will enable it to

6 According to NARA, project goals also included improving quality of
responses, decreasing cost per request and enhancing individual and
organizational development.

Page 7 GAO- 01- 599 National Personnel Records Center

receive requests electronically and directly access other agencies? data
bases in order to fulfill requests. NPRC officials expect these two features
to significantly improve timeliness.

The challenge that NPRC faces in shortening the amount of time it takes to
respond to requests for records is in part a function of its human capital
challenges. Our designation in January 2001 of strategic human capital
management as a governmentwide high- risk area underscored the connection
between human capital challenges and programmatic challenges and risks. 7 To
help agencies manage these challenges, in September 2000 we published a
human capital self- assessment checklist. 8 The checklist emphasized the
need to pursue a workforce planning strategy, through which an organization
should identify its current and future human capital needs, including the
size and deployment of its workforce across the organization, and the
knowledge, skills, and abilities needed for the agency to pursue its
mission, goals, and business strategies. 9 Moreover, an agency?s workforce
planning strategy should be linked to strategic and program planning
efforts.

In fiscal year 2000, on average, NPRC took 54 days to respond to written
requests for records. 10 Although NPRC completed about 6 percent of record
requests within 10 days in fiscal year 2000, its goal is to eventually
complete 95 percent of requests within 10 days by fiscal year 2005. This
goal is identified in NARA?s strategic plan under the Government Performance
and Results Act. NPRC officials attribute delays in completing requests
primarily to the large backlog of requests waiting to be processed. As of
the end of the second quarter of fiscal year 2001, NPRC had a backlog of
about 214,000 requests. This would represent about a 3- month wait from the
time NPRC receives the request to the time that a technician begins to
process the request. NPRC officials identify two events as the cause of the
backlog. The first is the loss of 43 employees out

7 High Risk Series: An Update (GAO- 01- 263, Jan. 2001). 8 Human Capital: A
Self- Assessment Checklist for Agency Leaders (GAO/ OCG- 00- 14G, Sept.
2000). 9 Human Capital: Meeting the Governmentwide High- Risk Challenge
(GAO- 01- 357T, Feb. 2001). 10 According to NARA, requests involving burials
and medical emergencies are answered within 24 hours. However, officials
told us they do not keep timeliness statistics on expedited requests. NPRC
Response Time

Lagging

Page 8 GAO- 01- 599 National Personnel Records Center

of a staff of 273 who accepted buyouts- cash incentives to retire or resign-
in fiscal year 1995. According to NARA, the buyout was part of a
governmentwide effort to streamline the federal workforce. The second is the
ongoing implementation of NPRC?s reengineering project. NPRC officials told
us that reengineering slowed down productivity because employees were
participating in training, moving to redesigned work spaces, and adjusting
to the restructuring of the work process.

Data from NPRC showing changes in the backlog appear consistent with NPRC?s
explanation of the causes of the backlog. Specifically, the backlog
initially increased dramatically in fiscal year 1995, the year of the
buyout; dropped to about 61, 000 in 1997 as the number of staff rose to pre-
buyout levels; and increased dramatically again during fiscal years 1999 and
2000 when NPRC began implementing the reengineering project. 11 Our analysis
of workload and staffing data provided by the NPRC shows that productivity
declined by about 25 percent from the end of fiscal year 1997 to the end of
fiscal year 2000. Figure 3 shows the request backlogs from 1993 through
2000.

11 In general, the number of requests received by the NPRC has been in
decline since fiscal year 1995.

Page 9 GAO- 01- 599 National Personnel Records Center

Figure 3: Backlog of Requests at NPRC at End of Fiscal Year

Source: NPRC data.

NPRC?s current efforts are not likely to improve response time soon, and it
is unclear whether NPRC will meet its fiscal year 2005 timeliness goal.
NPRC?s use of overtime has not stopped the growth in the backlog of requests
while reengineering is being implemented. NPRC expects the backlog to
continue to increase as its employees adjust to the new process. Moreover,
in the long term it is not clear that the reengineering project will result
in NPRC meeting its timeliness goals. NPRC does not have a plan that shows
how it will achieve its fiscal year 2005 timeliness goal, in part because
NPRC does not yet have data to show what level of production it will achieve
by operating in the reengineered environment. In addition, NPRC has not yet
implemented its proposed computer system, which it expects to have a
significant impact on timeliness.

NPRC is using overtime in an attempt to contain the growth of the backlog
while it implements its reengineering. However, the number of cases
completed through overtime work has not reduced the backlog. Even while
using overtime, NPRC was unable to complete its incoming workload in the
first 6 months of fiscal year 2001. As a result, the backlog NPRC?s Efforts

Unlikely to Improve Response Time in Short- Term and LongTerm Resul ts Not
Clear

NPRC?s Efforts Unlikely to Improve Response Time Soon

145 93 67 108

84 61 39 32

0 20

40 60

80 100

120 140

160 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000

Requests pending (in thousands)

Fiscal year

Page 10 GAO- 01- 599 National Personnel Records Center

of cases grew by about 69, 000 cases to 214, 000 cases in the first half of
fiscal year 2001. NPRC projects that it can complete about 26,000 to 28,000
additional cases per year by using overtime given its current overtime
budget. Even if NPRC could keep up with its normal workload during regular
hours and overtime efforts were applied only to reducing the backlog, we
estimate it would take over 7 years to eliminate the backlog.

NPRC officials expect the backlog of requests to increase as it implements
its reengineering. According to NPRC officials, employees are still
adjusting to their expanded roles and the new process. These adjustments
include learning to work in teams, handling requests of varying difficulty
levels and for different service branches, and using computers to receive,
track, and draft responses to requests. The productivity of staff working
under the old system is greater than that of staff working under the
reengineered system. According to NARA, NPRC?s units working in the new
environment completed about 15 cases per staff day. In fiscal year 2000
units still operating under the old process completed about 31 cases per
staff day. However, according to NPRC officials, future productivity numbers
may not be comparable to those achieved under the old process. This is
because NPRC anticipates handling cases completely and correctly the first
time they are received, which could take longer. NPRC officials estimate
that the backlog could exceed 240,000 cases at the end of this year. This is
almost 100, 000 cases more than at the end of fiscal year 2000.

Currently, it is not clear whether reengineering will result in NPRC meeting
its goal of answering 95 percent of requests within 10 working days by
fiscal year 2005. NPRC does not have a plan that shows how it will achieve
its fiscal year 2005 timeliness goal. NPRC has not identified specific
timeframes, staff, or production levels needed to meet its longterm goal and
how its use of overtime and its reengineering efforts will enable it to meet
the goal. According to NPRC officials, they do not have such a plan because
they do not have enough information to develop such a plan. For example, the
officials said that they do not have data on the overall NPRC productivity
improvements anticipated in the reengineered environment. NPRC is currently
developing this type of data.

While NPRC has begun implementing its reengineering, full implementation of
its proposed computer technologies has not occurred. NPRC is depending on
electronic receipt of requests and the ability to access other agency data
bases to significantly improve timeliness. NPRC officials believe that these
technologies will significantly free up time for staff to work on more
cases. They believe that in some situations requests It is Not Clear Whether

NPRC Will Meet Its LongTerm Timeliness Goal

Page 11 GAO- 01- 599 National Personnel Records Center

will be filled electronically without human intervention. NPRC officials do
not anticipate beginning to implement receipt of electronic requests until
April 2002, and accessing other agency data bases could begin as late as
fiscal year 2004.

NPRC is attempting to improve its timeliness in responding to requests for
veterans? records. NPRC is using overtime to control the backlog while it
implements the business reengineering in an effort to revamp its outmoded
manual process. However, NPRC?s use of overtime has not been able to control
its backlog, which is expected to increase significantly. NPRC?s ability to
realize any potential benefits from reengineering is hampered by the
existence of the backlog. Computer technology, which is expected to
significantly improve timeliness, has not been fully implemented. NPRC does
not have a plan that shows what it needs to meet its long- term timeliness
goal and how its actions will enable it to do so. Without such a plan, NPRC
cannot provide assurances that it will meet its timeliness goal and that its
actions will be sufficient to improve timeliness.

We recommend that NARA require NPRC to develop a plan that shows what is
needed to meet its fiscal year 2005 timeliness goal, including human capital
issues such as staffing and production levels and timeframes, and how its
use of overtime and reengineering will enable it to meet its goal.

We received written comments on a draft of this report from NARA (see app.
I). In its comments, NARA stated that it supported our recommendation to
develop a plan that shows what is needed to meet its fiscal year 2005
timeliness goal. NARA noted that it expects to complete a plan that will
link reengineering milestones to cycle time improvements by mid- July of
this year.

NARA also indicated that the draft report did not take into account its
customer service and human capital management initiatives. However, the
draft report discussed changes in both the work environment and quality of
customer service as they potentially relate to timeliness - the central
focus of our review. NARA also commented that timeliness was just one facet
of its effort and that its ?balanced scorecard? approach established other
goals. We agree that measuring timeliness without measuring other factors,
such as quality of the work, would be inappropriate. Finally, NARA commented
that the draft report tried to Conclusion

Recommendation for Executive Action

Agency Comments and Our Evaluation

Page 12 GAO- 01- 599 National Personnel Records Center

compare productivity statistics from before reengineering to the pilot phase
of the reengineering project. We disagree. In fact, we explicitly
acknowledged that future productivity numbers may not be comparable to those
achieved under the old process because of the NPRC?s plan to handle cases
completely and correctly the first time they are received. This approach may
take longer than the previous system, but, to the extent that it reduces
duplicate requests and other rework, it would ultimately improve timeliness.

NARA also provided technical comments, which we incorporated where
appropriate. NARA stated that the NPRC backlog is not a factor in the
timeliness of the Veterans Benefits Administration?s (VBA?s) servicing of
disability compensation claims. However, our previous work on VBA?s process
shows that NPRC is an external source from which VBA often needs
documentation. To expedite obtaining this information, VBA established its
own unit at the NPRC in 1999.

As agreed with your offices, unless you publicly announce its contents
earlier, we plan no further distribution of this report until 30 days after
its issue date. At that time, we will send copies of this report to the
Honorable John Carlin, Archivist of the United States; appropriate
congressional committees; and other interested parties. We will also make
copies available to others on request.

If you have any questions about this report, please call me on (202) 512-
7101 or Irene Chu, Assistant Director, on (202) 512- 7102. Other key
contributors were Martin Scire, Bob Sampson, and Patrick di Battista.

Cynthia A. Bascetta Director, Education, Workforce,

and Income Security Issues

Appendix: Comments from the National Archives and Records Administration

Page 13 GAO- 01- 599 National Personnel Records Center

Appendix: Comments from the National Archives and Records Administration

Appendix: Comments from the National Archives and Records Administration

Page 14 GAO- 01- 599 National Personnel Records Center

Appendix: Comments from the National Archives and Records Administration

Page 15 GAO- 01- 599 National Personnel Records Center (207105)

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