GAO: DoD fails to detail mental health spending - Navy News | News from Afghanistan & Iraq - Navy Times

GAO: DoD fails to detail mental health spending

A new report from a congressional watchdog agency raises concerns about the Defense Department’s accounting of $2.7 billion marked for treating and researching psychological health issues and traumatic brain injuries.

The report released Wednesday by the Government Accountability Office says DoD has not provided reports required by law detailing how those funds were spent. The money was distributed between fiscal 2007 and fiscal 2010.

The GAO described as “unreliable” the obligations data — information that gives an overview of what contracts and programs the funds support — in the reports.

“We found that the Tricare Management Activity, which administered funds allocated to [the Defense Centers of Excellence] had not developed written policies and procedures to ensure the proper recording of obligations and that it had not properly classified most of DCoE’s fiscal 2009 contract obligations,” the report states.

GAO also said the strategic plan of the Defense Centers of Excellence for Psychological Health and Traumatic Brain Injury, responsible for the Pentagon’s head injury and behavioral health programs, lacked clear guidance on its statutory responsibilities.

Instead, responsibilities for creating standards of care for injured and mentally ill service members as well as training, outreach, research and patient care are spread among the DCoEs, Tricare, the Army Medical Research and Materiel Command and other agencies.

“GAO, in conducting this review, had to obtain information from several different sources to compile a comprehensive list” of DoD’s phsycologtical health and TBI activities, auditors said.

Auditors recommended to DoD four changes to improve accountability: include expenditure data in its annual reports to Congress; establish quality control mechanisms for the data; specify what is included in patient care costs if this information is disclosed in future reports; and examine the role of DCoE as the Pentagon’s coordinating authority to determine whether it or another organization should perform the function.

The Pentagon concurred with the findings. Officials said they will furnish expenditure reports, with the caveat that the figures often lag behind the end-of-year reports, and said they are in the process of “revisiting” DCoE’s role.

Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs Dr. Jonathan Woodson described the DCoE’s role as “evolving,” saying the Centers of Excellence advisory board is overseeing the revision of its concept of operations and added that DoD’s Cost Assessment and Program Evaluation Office has asked DCoE to assume a larger role in psychological health and TBI program evaluation.