Summary: The Military Sealift Command, whose fleet consists of a mix of government and privately owned vessels, lacks adequate controls to detect and deter abuses by contractor-operated ships. These shortcomings include inadequate verification of crew repairs, review of invoices, and supervision of overhaul work. The Military Sealift Command does not verify that it has received the goods or services it is paying for, in part because there is a disconnect between headquarters reviewers and field-level personnel, whose main concern is the operation but not the cost of the ships' repair. The Military Sealift Command also cannot be certain that contractual requirements are being met. It has no guidelines for systematically establishing personnel requirements, such as those involving citizenship and security. Neither does it regularly compare contractual requirements with contractors' performance in obtaining security clearances and trustworthiness evaluations for crew members. Finally, the Military Sealift Command lacks a formal system to identify and implement best practices to improve contractor performance and reduce costs.
