WASHINGTON — A new government watchdog report finds that the Department of Defense (DoD) and several other federal agencies need to take steps to make their sexual harassment training more effective.
The Government Accountability Office (GAO) says that while the DoD has taken steps to address the problem, sexual harassment persists and is underreported.
In a 2021 survey, of nearly 4,200 federal civilian employees — including those who work for the Air Force, Army, Navy and Defense Department —12.6 % of respondents reported that they had experienced sexual harassment in the prior two years.
Now, the GAO has found key gaps in the DoD's and six other federal agencies' support for training programs aimed at preventing incidents of sexual harassment in the workplace.
GAO Defense Capabilities and Management team Director Brenda Farrell says the problem is the agencies have not developed and implemented plans to evaluate the effectiveness of their training programs.
In short, they don't know what they don't know.
"What's really missing at DoD is oversight as well as evaluation. They have programs but they don't evaluate those programs in order to determine what do they need to do in order to be more effective," Farrell said in an interview with 13News Now.
The report concludes the agencies "may be missing opportunities to foster a climate free from harassment."