GAO Says FAA AST Needs To Improve How It Operates
Commercial Space Transportation: Improvements to FAA’s Workforce Planning Needed to Prepare for the Industry’s Anticipated Growth, GAO
“Since 2016, AST has taken steps to improve how it determines its current workforce needs to carry out its mission including licensing commercial launch vehicle operations. These steps include more comprehensively monitoring staff time spent on specific activities and measuring the volume of the staff’s work. While AST officials told us that AST is planning to continue to improve its workforce-planning efforts, GAO found that some aspects of AST’s efforts fall short of key principles of strategic workforce planning. Such principles underscore the importance of determining both current and future workforce needs and identifying potential gaps in employee skills.”
GAO demands that FAA employees spend more time accounting for their time and less time actually doing their jobs. How about assessing whether commercial launches are getting evaluated and licensed quickly and safely?
Most people like to think their job is important. Accountants like to think accounting is important. So, yes, the General Accounting Office thinks the FAA should do more accounting. I’d actually be surprised if a GAO report recommended _less_ accounting.