United States Government Publishing Office publisher pbl distributor dst United States Government Accountability Office author aut Government Organization text government publication eng GAOREPORTS Legislative Agency Publications gao legislative 2010-08-12 U.S. Government Printing Office 2001-12-31 monographic deposited born digital 33 p. GA 1.13:GAO-02-203 https://www.govinfo.gov/app/details/GAOREPORTS-GAO-02-203 P0b002ee1803a344e f:d02203 DGPO 2010-08-12 2011-03-24 GAOREPORTS-GAO-02-203 machine generated eng fdlp REPORT GAOREPORTS-GAO-02-203 GAO-02-203 Export regulation Licenses Productivity in government Information resources management Other Written Product A02623 The U.S. defense industry and some foreign government purchasers have expressed concern that the U.S. export control process is unnecessarily burdensome. Specifically, defense industry officials have stated that extended reviews of export license applications by the State Department are resulting in lost sales and are adversely affecting the nation's defense industry. In the United States, the State Department's Office of Defense Trade Controls is the office responsible for licensing the export and temporary import of defense articles and services. Many license applications take a significant amount of time to review because of the complexity of the application and the need to consider different points of view in the review process. However, several conditions reduce the efficiency of the application review process and result in delays. The State Department has not established formal guidelines for determining the agencies and offices that need to review license applications. As a result, the licensing office refers more license applications to other agencies and offices than may be necessary. Further, many license application reviewers in State Department reviewing offices consider license reviews low priority work. The State Department lacks procedures to monitor the flow of license applications through the review process. The State Department has hired new licensing officers, which, according to license office officials, has decreased processing time, and the Department is planning to upgrade the office's electronic business system. However, the planned business system upgrade needs to focus on ensuring a controlled and timely flow of applications, and implementing a mechanism to track the progress of applications; otherwise, the benefits of the upgrade may be limited. https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GAOREPORTS-GAO-02-203/html/GAOREPORTS-GAO-02-203.htm https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GAOREPORTS-GAO-02-203/pdf/GAOREPORTS-GAO-02-203.pdf GAO-02-203 https://www.govinfo.gov/app/details/GAOREPORTS-GAO-02-203 Other Written Product GAO-02-203; Export Controls: Reengineering Business Processes Can Improve Efficiency of State Department License Reviews; Export regulation Licenses Productivity in government Information resources management Public Law 104-106