The Department of Defense needs to establish clear leadership and
accountability as well as adopt results-oriented management tools
in its efforts to transform the military, the Government
Accountability Office has said.
It said current responsibility for transformation is decentralized
among various defense organizations, and expressed concern that
no one person or agency has comprehensive and continued
leadership responsibilities or accountability for achieving results.
Defense currently has a group that meets to discuss
transformation issues but it lacks a charter and has no authority,
according to GAO-05-70, which states, “informal mechanisms
are not enough to ensure Congress that DoD allocates resources to
what is really needed rather than what it merely desires.”
GAO said, as in earlier reports, that “key practices for
successful transformation include leadership that sets the
direction of transformation and assigns accountability for
results, and the use of crosscutting implementation teams,
which can provide the day-to-day management needed for
success.”
It also said DoD needs to make specific organizations and
individuals accountable for results, and give individuals the
authority to accomplish goals.
According to the report, DoD feels its informal mechanisms
sufficiently involve key organizations that are better able to
implement changes individually, and annual assessments of
transformation roadmaps enable the secretary of defense to
adequately direct transformation efforts in each organization.
However, GAO said the department might not be able to
direct resources to the highest priority and ensure progress in
the face of perennial changes in senior leadership personnel
without “clear leadership, accountability, and a formal
implementation mechanism.”
