COAST GUARD: Actions Needed to Improve National Vessel Documentation Center Operations

Abstract

In fiscal year 2019, the NVDC documented about 230,000 vessels for commercial and recreational purposes in U.S. waters. The Coast Guard requires owners of certain sized commercial vessels to obtain vessel documentation - a form of vessel registration - through the NVDC. Vessel documentation is optional for owners of recreational vessels of 5 or more net tons (generally longer than 26 feet), and many do so to secure a mortgage for financing. In 2017, GAO reported that the NVDC faced backlogs in processing recreational vessel documentation. The Frank LoBiondo Coast Guard Authorization Act of 2018 includes a provision for GAO to review NVDCs operations. This report examines, among other objectives, the extent that the Coast Guard (1) met its NVDC workload demands and (2) measured NVDC's effectiveness in processing vessel documentation. GAO analyzed Coast Guard vessel documentation processing data for fiscal years 2015 through 2019 and information on its system used to process vessel documentation. GAO also interviewed cognizant Coast Guard officials.

Open PDF

Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Dec 16, 2020
Accession Number
AD1152659

Entities

People

  • Barbara E. Osta
  • David Hooper
  • Emily Hutz
  • Eric Hauswirth
  • Grace Kwon
  • Jason Berman
  • Luis E. Rodriguez
  • Nathan J. Anderson
  • Susan Hsu
  • Terry Richardson

Organizations

  • United States Government Accountability Office

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Ground and Sea Platforms

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Coast Guard
  • Commerce
  • Congress
  • Customer Services
  • Department Of Homeland Security
  • Financial Management
  • Governments
  • Homeland Security
  • Information Systems
  • Law
  • Maritime Industry
  • Measures Of Effectiveness
  • National Governments
  • Naval Architecture
  • Resource Management
  • Task Forces
  • United States Government

Readers

  • Defense Financial Management and Audit.
  • Military Mobilization and Reserve Forces Studies.
  • Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering.