Two of the nation’s most critical executive departments—the Department of War and the Department of Veterans Affairs—are leading the federal government in unresolved recommendations for reform, according to the Government Accountability Office (GAO). Despite their massive budgets and workforces, both agencies have allowed years of watchdog warnings to pile up, with hundreds of improvement items still sitting unresolved.
The Department of War, by far the largest executive agency with roughly 3 million personnel, has 778 open GAO recommendations dating as far back as 2011. Forty-eight of those are labeled as priority items—meaning they address major risks or urgent issues. These include concerns over military barracks conditions, mishandled TRICARE payments, fraud risk management, and the long-troubled F-35 fighter jet program. Of the priority items, only 15 have been partially addressed, according to the GAO.
The Department of Veterans Affairs follows with 180 unresolved recommendations going back to 2012, 22 of which are priority. Most of the VA’s pressing concerns are tied to the ongoing overhaul of its electronic health records system, which began in 2023. As of March 2025, only five medical centers had adopted the new system, and it remains riddled with issues despite “incremental improvements.” The VA’s oldest outstanding priority recommendation dates to 2020 and involves incomplete sexual harassment policies. GAO records show the VA has resolved all priority items prior to that year and has partially addressed five of the current 22.
Other departments with substantial backlogs include the Department of Energy (163), the Department of Homeland Security (160), and the Department of Health and Human Services (149). Across the board, many of the recommendations have lingered unresolved for a decade or more.
The GAO, created by Congress in 1921, serves as a nonpartisan watchdog over federal spending and agency performance. Its findings are used to inform legislative oversight, and its recommendations are critical to ensuring taxpayer funds are spent efficiently and ethically. Yet, with the Pentagon and VA ignoring hundreds of GAO fixes, the question remains: who is holding these agencies accountable?
