Service Member Records: DOD Needs to Address Improper and Delayed Releasing of Personnel and Health Information

Service Member Records: DOD Needs to Address Improper and Delayed Releasing of Personnel and Health Information.

The Department of Defense is a primary recordkeeper of the personnel and health records that service members accrue during their military careers. DOD must safeguard and process them in a timely manner.

But the military services reported almost 50 improper releases of records affecting more than 1,000 service members from fiscal years 2021-25. It also saw the volume and complexity of requests for personnel records increase amidst staffing challenges.

And as we previously reported, DOD's use of multiple data systems for its health records has complicated its records release process.

We made several recommendations to address these issues.

Service members can accrue a large volume of personnel and health records during their military careers. The custodians of these records are the Department of Defense (DOD) and the Department of Veterans Affairs. DOD and the military services developed policies and procedures to properly adhere to federal laws for safeguarding records and timely processing records requests. However, the risk of breaches and delays exists. For example, GAO covertly tested 26 requests for records from DOD; of the 18 processed requests, one was improperly released and did not redact personally identifiable information.

Examples of Breaches of Military Records Among Record Custodians