TRANSCOM may not have a grasp on their own survey data collection, and the Government Accountability Office is taking notice.
The GAO recently looked into DOD’s handling of Coast Guard relocations, including moving services. This study was directed by the 2024 National Defense Authorization Act (annual DOD budget).
Some of their findings point out what many have been saying for years:
“The Secretary of Defense should ensure that the TRANSCOM Commander analyzes the potential for non-response bias in the Customer Satisfaction Survey and, as necessary, incorporate accepted statistical methods to adjust for identified sources of bias into operating procedures.”
A footnote in the full report goes on to say:
“For example, the absolute level of satisfaction rates among survey responders does not imply that satisfaction would be the same among non-responders. An estimated satisfaction rate of 83 percent among 29 percent of the responding customer population could mask a 99 percent satisfaction rate among the non-responding customer population, meaning that the overall population’s satisfaction rate is higher than estimated.”
Even though this isn’t specifically about GHC, it’s relevant because the GAO has picked up on the same problems with TRANSCOM’s satisfaction survey that a lot of movers have called out since the survey’s inception back in the mid-2000s. This is why securing a GAO audit of the GHC is so important.
The report summary is an interesting read: SUMMARY
