GAO ISSUES CONGRESSIONAL REPORT ON FAA’S COMPLIANCE PROGRAM
September 12, 2020
On August 18, 2020, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) issued a report, available here, on the FAA’s Compliance Program which was originally initiated in 2015. The policy was intended to be a more collaborative and problem-solving approach to safety enforcement which emphasized using compliance actions, such as counseling or training, rather than enforcement actions, to address many violations.
The GAO report found that no specific FAA office or entity provides oversight for the Compliance Program. While FAA had originally tasked a working group to lead the initial implementation efforts, that group no longer regularly discusses the Compliance Program, and no office or entity was later assigned oversight authority. Based on this, GAO found that FAA is not positioned to identify and share best practices or other valuable information across the agency. GAO also found that while FAA had established goals for the Compliance Program, FAA had not taken any steps to evaluate whether the program accomplishes these goals.
Based on this review, GAO made the following three recommendations to the FAA: (1) the Agency should assign authority to an office or other entity to oversee use of the Compliance Program across program offices; (2) the Agency should collect and analyze data to monitor use of the Compliance Program across all program offices; and (3) the Agency should conduct an evaluation of the Compliance Program to assess the effectiveness of the program in meeting its goals. After reviewing the report, FAA concurred with the recommendations.
If you have any questions, please contact Evelyn Sahr (esahr@eckertseamans.com or 202-659-6622); Drew Derco (dderco@eckertseamans.com or 202-659-6665), or Andy Orr (aorr@eckertsemans.com or 202-659-6625).
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