DOD Has Processes for Operating and Managing Its Sexual Assault Incident Database, GAO-17-99: Published: Jan 10, 2017. Publicly Released: Jan 10, 2017.
“As of October 2013, the Department of Defense’s (DOD) Defense Sexual Assault Incident Database (DSAID) was fully implemented and in use across the military services, and DOD had taken several steps to standardize DSAID’s use throughout the department. Sexual assault incident data are input into DSAID through both manual and automated data entry processes and include, as applicable, victim and referral support information, investigative and incident information, and case outcome data for certain incidents of sexual assault that involve a servicemember. Additionally, in some instances DSAID includes sexual assault cases involving a servicemember spouse, an adult family member, and DOD civilians and contractors. Further, DOD has taken several steps to standardize DSAID’s use through the development of (1) policies, processes, and procedures for using the system; (2) training for system users; and (3) processes for monitoring the completeness of data. DSAID users have identified technical challenges with the system and DOD officials stated that they have plans to spend approximately $8.5 million to implement modifications to DSAID that address most of these challenges in fiscal years 2017 and 2018. Some of the key technical challenges users have identified experiencing with the system relate to DSAID’s system speed and ease of use; interfaces with other external DOD databases; and users’ ability to query data and generate reports. DOD has plans in place to implement modifications to DSAID that are expected to alleviate these challenges; however, officials stated that they will not be approved to fund these modifications until they have conducted an analysis of alternatives that is in line with DOD’s acquisition policy framework…”