GAO: MARAD needs to take action on workforce problems

Image: GAO

While efforts to trim the federal workforce make the headlines, some agencies are plainly understaffed. A new report from the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) says that while the Department of Transportation’s Maritime Administration (MARAD) has about 800 employees to carry out its many missions, it is facing staff turnover, high numbers of employees eligible to retire, and vacancies in critical positions. And it doesn’t have a strategic human capital plan to address how it will hire and retain employees.

GAO says that growing interest in revitalizing America’s maritime industrial base has put a spotlight on the issue.

While MARAD’s budget grew by approximately 314% from fiscal years 2015 through 2024, as of September 2024, it had a 12.3% vacancy rate—116 vacancies out of 941 authorized full-time positions. In addition, MARAD separated 235 more employees than it hired over the last 10 years. According to MARAD officials, these vacancies have made it increasingly difficult for the staff to accomplish their mission. Furthermore, the number of retirement-eligible staff is projected to increase, from 24% in 2024 to 43% by calendar year 2029.

To address these challenges, MARAD has expanded the use of hiring flexibilities to help recruit qualified candidates, begun employee engagement efforts, and developed a recruitment and outreach plan. In July 2024, MARAD hired a contractor to develop a strategic workforce plan. Agency officials expect the plan to be completed in September 2025.

GAO found that MARAD has not fully implemented key strategic workforce planning principles into its forthcoming strategic workforce plan. For example, GAO has previously reported that agencies should determine critical skills needed to achieve current and future goals and assess any skill gaps.

MARAD officials said that the contractor will conduct a workforce analysis that includes identifying workforce competencies and skills as part of the forthcoming workforce plan. However, the agency has yet to fully determine future skills that may be needed. Individual program offices, such as the office of Shipyards and Marine Engineering, told GAO that they anticipate needing additional expertise in certain skillsets, such as cybersecurity and artificial intelligence, in the years ahead. However, MARAD has not yet determined overall how it will assess future skill gaps such as these, or other skills, needed within the agency as a whole. MARAD officials said they have not fully assessed the workforce skills needed because the strategic workforce plan is still in development. Nevertheless, without fully determining the skill gaps needed to achieve future results and developing a strategy to address them, MARAD will not have assurance that its workforce is best positioned to meet current and future mission needs.

GAO is making four recommendations, including that MARAD assess critical skills and develop a strategy to address any future skill gaps identified in the forthcoming strategic workforce plan. It says that he Department of Transportation agreed with its recommendations.

RECOMMENDATIONS

• The Administrator of the Maritime Administration should ensure that managers, employees, and stakeholders are involved in developing the forthcoming strategic workforce plan, by identifying the means and frequency for involving them in the plan’s development.

• The Administrator of the Maritime Administration should assess critical skills needed to achieve MARAD’s future goals and develop a strategy to address any future skill gaps identified within the forthcoming strategic workforce plan.

• The Administrator of the Maritime Administration should build the capability needed to support workforce strategies, such as by determining how MARAD will incorporate hiring flexibilities or streamline any administrative processes needed to implement the forthcoming strategic workforce plan.

• The Administrator of the Maritime Administration should develop a process to monitor and evaluate progress toward any goals ultimately identified in the forthcoming strategic workforce plan, to include creating a set of quantifiable measures of effectiveness that will help gauge progress in implementing the agency’s forthcoming strategic workforce plan.

The GAO report has, of course, appeared at a time when Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy is new in the job and no new Maritime Administrator has been nominated.

Still, the realities of MARAD’s staffing situation remain and the full GAO report spells out some of the effects that this having.

• Download the full report HERE