United States Government Publishing Office publisher pbl distributor dst United States Government Accountability Office National Security and International Affairs Division author aut Government Organization text government publication eng GAOREPORTS Legislative Agency Publications gao legislative 2010-08-12 U.S. Government Printing Office 1997-08-15 monographic deposited born digital 12 p. GA 1.13:NSIAD-97-180 https://www.govinfo.gov/app/details/GAOREPORTS-NSIAD-97-180 P0b002ee180394436 f:ns97180 DGPO 2010-08-12 2011-03-28 GAOREPORTS-NSIAD-97-180 machine generated eng fdlp REPORT GAOREPORTS-NSIAD-97-180 NSIAD-97-180 Public relations Evaluation criteria Historic preservation Military vessels Gifts or gratuities U.S.S. Missouri Letter Report NSIAD

Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the facts surrounding the donation of the U.S.S. Missouri to the U.S.S. Missouri Memorial Association, focusing on the: (1) process of applying for the ship; (2) evaluation criteria and weighting used to evaluate the applications; and (3) use of the criteria and weighting in the selection process.<p/>GAO noted that: (1) the Navy began the donation process for the U.S.S. Missouri in the same manner as prior donations, by requesting financial and technical information from the applicants and working with applicants to help ensure that their applications would satisfy the Navy's financial and technical requirements; (2) subsequently, the Navy decided that, with respect to the U.S.S. Missouri, additional evaluation criteria, "historical significance" and "public affairs benefits to the Navy," were needed to assist the Secretary of the Navy in making the donation decision among four of five applicants that met the Navy's financial and technical requirements; (3) this was the first time such additional criteria were used in any donation selection process; (4) while the donation appears to have been impartially applied, and all applicants were provided the same information on the additional criteria at the same time, the Navy did not do a good job in communicating its additional requirements to the applicants; (5) specifically, applicants were not told: (a) what the relative importance of the evaluation criteria was in the process (the added criteria actually represented 75 percent of the donation award weight); (b) what the added evaluation criteria meant; or (c) how well already submitted applications met the added criteria; (6) these factors were particularly important because the Navy's evaluation teams were told to base their scoring only on the information contained in the applications; (7) as a result, the Navy evaluation teams found that the applications had limited information that could be applied against the added criteria; (8) according to some applicants, had they known that the additional criteria carried so much weight, they would have revised their applications; (9) what appears to have been an otherwise open process with clear communications and frequent interaction between the Navy and the applicants for the U.S.S. Missouri was not with respect to the additional two criteria; (10) the Secretary of the Navy, by statute, has broad discretion in making ship donation decisions; (11) the Navy's existing donation application procedures are designed for assessing applicants in terms of their financial and technical capabilities to move and sustain a vessel; and (12) when additional criteria beyond financial and technical requirements are used and applicants are asked to submit information to address them, existing application procedures do not provide guidance on how the Navy should proceed. https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GAOREPORTS-NSIAD-97-180/html/GAOREPORTS-NSIAD-97-180.htm https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GAOREPORTS-NSIAD-97-180/pdf/GAOREPORTS-NSIAD-97-180.pdf GAO/NSIAD-97-180 https://www.govinfo.gov/app/details/GAOREPORTS-NSIAD-97-180 Letter Report GAO/NSIAD-97-180; Naval Ship Donation: Existing Procedures Inadequate for the Use of Additional Evaluation Criteria; Public relations Evaluation criteria Historic preservation Military vessels Gifts or gratuities U.S.S. Missouri Title 10 Section 7306 10 U.S.C. 7306 Title 31 Section 720 31 U.S.C. 720