GAO report says proposed changes to military exchanges, commissaries is not supported by data

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) recently released a report on the Defense Department's (DoD) proposed changes to military exchanges and commissaries that supports military and veterans groups’ concerns that those changes are not based on data or methodical analysis.
 
"The GAO report makes it clear that DoD doesn't have enough information to know how its proposed changes will affect the resale system," Joyce Raezer, executive director for the National Military Family Association, said. "We're concerned about the long-term impacts on a benefit that thousands of service members and families rely on."
 
The DoD’s report on its proposed changes anticipates $2 billion in savings over a 5-year period. The GAO’s report, titled “DoD Commissaries and Exchanges — Plan and Additional Information Needed on Cost Savings and Metrics for DoD Efforts to Achieve Budget Neutrality,” criticizes the DoD’s report for not supporting that $2 billion target and for not demonstrating that it can reach that figure without reducing patron benefits.
 
"(The National Association for Uniformed Services) is troubled that radical reforms may be inaugurated before such changes can be properly analyzed," Rick Jones, legislative director for the National Association for Uniformed Services, said. "It is clear, looking at the GAO report, that sweeping changes, like privatizing commissaries, pose a serious threat to one of the military's most popular earned benefit. NAUS urges Congress and the Pentagon to refrain from drastic changes. Cost-cutting proposals that squeeze our men and women in uniform are unacceptable."