Citing pervasive financial and business management problems that adversely affect the economy, efficiency, and effectiveness of Department of Defense operations and an
ongoing lack of accountability across all major business areas, the Government Accountability Office has renewed its call for the creation of a chief management officer.
It said these problems have left the department vulnerable to billions of dollars of fraud, waste, and abuse annually, at a time of increasing fiscal constraint, and it has also
called on the department to develop and implement a comprehensive, integrated and enterprise-wide business transformation plan.
Despite significant annual investment the department continues to fail to implement business systems projects on time, within budget and with the promised capability, according to
GAO-06-1006T.
It said that while top management has shown a commitment to transforming the department’s business processes — through the Financial Improvement and Audit Readiness Plan, as well
as an initial Standard Financial Information Structure, which is an enterprise-wide data standard for categorizing financial information — that the department’s numerous, ongoing
high-risk challenges will take time to effectively address and necessitate a CMO and stronger transformation plan.