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 1998-04-21 monographic deposited born digital 27 p. GA 1.13:NSIAD-98-93 https://www.govinfo.gov/app/details/GAOREPORTS-NSIAD-98-93 P0b002ee180397887 f:ns98093 DGPO 2010-08-12 2011-03-23 GAOREPORTS-NSIAD-98-93 machine generated eng fdlp REPORT GAOREPORTS-NSIAD-98-93 NSIAD-98-93 Naval personnel Naval bases Naval supplies Military vessels Shipyards Temporary employment Equipment maintenance Cost effectiveness analysis Privatization Human resources utilization Navy Regional Maintenance Program Letter Report NSIAD

Pursuant to a legislative requirement, GAO reviewed the Navy's practice of using temporary duty assignments of naval personnel to perform ship maintenance and repair work at homeports without nearby naval shipyard capability, focusing on the: (1) rationale supporting the Navy's practice; (2) cost-effectiveness of these assignments; and (3) factors affecting future requirements for the practice.<p/>GAO noted that: (1) the Navy's rationale for temporary duty assignments is twofold; (2) such assignments are required to perform work at locations where no local public or private shipyards have the required depot-level maintenance capability; (3) most temporary duty assignments are for this reason; (4) the Navy performs work at such locations to comply with its policy to perform ship repairs of six months or less at the ship's homeport and when it is not practical to bring ships to the shipyard; (5) the Navy believes that using temporarily excess naval shipyard workers on temporary duty assignment is cost-effective, even when there is local private sector capability because these workers will be needed in the future to perform ship repair work; (6) the Navy's rationale for sending temporarily excess naval shipyard personnel on temporary duty assignments appears reasonable from a cost and operational standpoint; (7) however, in some cases, other approaches may be more cost-effective; (8) the Navy is currently retaining some temporarily excess shipyard personnel to ensure that it can handle the planned refuelings of nuclear attack submarines for fiscal year (FY) 1999 and beyond; (9) retaining the personnel for these purposes appears reasonable, since the Navy has a need for the personnel; (10) it is following the same practice to perform nuclear ship repair work at San Diego because local private shipyards do not have nuclear capability; (11) however, other approaches, such as making greater use of the private sector, may warrant consideration; (12) possible changes to future ship repair workloads could affect the requirement for future temporary duty assignments and retention of current naval shipyard personnel levels; (13) for example, the Navy has cancelled 17 planned nuclear attack submarine refuelings since FY 1993; (14) further reductions in the number of planned refuelings would substantially decrease the on-site workloads planned for three naval shipyards, especially Portsmouth; (15) a proposal to homeport three nuclear aircraft carriers in San Diego, California, which does not have a local naval shipyard, could substantially increase temporary duty assignments; and (16) other factors that could affect the amount of future temporary duty assignments include: (a) further reductions in the number of Navy ships; (b) full implementation of the Navy's Regional Maintenance Program; and (c) a new round of base closures. https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GAOREPORTS-NSIAD-98-93/html/GAOREPORTS-NSIAD-98-93.htm https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GAOREPORTS-NSIAD-98-93/pdf/GAOREPORTS-NSIAD-98-93.pdf GAO/NSIAD-98-93 https://www.govinfo.gov/app/details/GAOREPORTS-NSIAD-98-93 Letter Report GAO/NSIAD-98-93; Navy Ship Maintenance: Temporary Duty Assignments of Temporarily Excess Shipyard Personnel Are Reasonable; Naval personnel Naval bases Naval supplies Military vessels Shipyards Temporary employment Equipment maintenance Cost effectiveness analysis Privatization Human resources utilization Navy Regional Maintenance Program Title 10 Section 2466 10 U.S.C. 2466