Summary: GAO assessed the Coast Guard's actions to increase the qualifications and tenure of acquisitions personnel.
GAO found that: (1) since 1985, the Coast Guard has taken steps to improve its managers' experience and training, but did not ensure that its project managers had the necessary skills to successfully manage major acquisitions; (2) in 1986, the Coast Guard established a panel to select project managers and focus on maintaining high standards of professionalism, ensuring that top performers received major projects, and enhancing project managers' prestige; (3) the panel had not yet formalized the selection criteria for project managers; (4) the Coast Guard took several steps to improve project managers' awareness of statutes, regulations, policies and procedures, and program management, primarily by ensuring that all project managers took a 20-week management course, but had not established a formal training requirement; (5) the Coast Guard's tenure guidelines did not differentiate between project manager and other headquarters assignments, but project managers' tours were generally less than 4 years; and (6) since the Coast Guard experienced frequent turnover for project managers, it was working to establish civilian deputy project manager positions to provide more continuity, since civilians were not subject to military rotation policies.
