DoD needs a chief management officer to provide focus and sustained leadership in order to succeed with its ongoing and often rocky business transformation effort, GAO has said.
It said in 2005 that the department’s improvement efforts were fragmented, that it lacked an integrated and enterprise-wide business transformation plan, and had not delegated a senior official at the right level with the right authority for business transformation.
While DoD has made progress since then establishing a management framework for overall business transformation, the framework currently focuses on business systems modernization and does not fully address broader business transformation efforts, according to GAO-07-1072.
It said the status quo is unacceptable and called for a full-time CMO at the right level, exclusively dedicated to business transformation.
Last May DoD stated that such a position is not necessary, and that the role is best filled by the deputy defense secretary, but GAO said other demands of that position would detract from a business transformation focus.
GAO also said the CMO needs to be a term appointment to carry transformation efforts across administrations.
DoD also said it wants to determine who plays the CMO role, but GAO said codifying the CMO in statute as a separate, full-time position at the right level with an extended term is needed for sustained leadership.
