We noted that these recommendations may take on more importance for DOD in light of the implementation of acquisition reforms that will further diffuse responsibility for initiating and overseeing acquisition programs, but DOD has yet to implement them.Ĭapacity: partially met. These recommendations aim to ensure that DOD’s investments are strategy driven, affordable, and balance near- and long-term needs. In June 2019 we reiterated the importance of recommendations we originally made in 2015 to clarify and strengthen roles and responsibilities at the enterprise level for making portfolio management decisions.
According to officials from the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment, (1) the military departments will also need to update their policies to align with department-wide policies, and (2) the department will need to develop streamlined processes and tools to support the effective implementation of the newly-issued policies. However, work still remains at both the Office of the Secretary of Defense and military department levels to complete the development and implementation of acquisition policies. The charters should help to further clarify roles and responsibilities. These two new offices responsible for acquisition oversight were created in response to congressional direction. In July 2020, the department issued charters for the Under Secretaries of Defense for Research and Engineering and Acquisition and Sustainment. Subsequently, the Deputy Secretary of Defense issued a memorandum in December 2019 to define roles for acquisition oversight. In June 2019, we reported that DOD needed continued leadership attention to address challenges with implementing acquisition oversight reforms, including disagreements between the Office of the Secretary of Defense and the military departments about acquisition oversight roles.
The guidance includes an increased focus on software development and cybersecurity practices that DOD leadership and others have recognized as a particular risk area for the department’s weapons system programs.ĭOD leadership has also continued to make progress in clearly defining roles and responsibilities for acquisition oversight. DOD has also issued supplemental guidance for these pathways and the functions that support them, such as cybersecurity and test and evaluation. The new guidance includes six acquisition pathways based on the characteristics and risk profile of the system being acquired. In 2020, DOD reissued its foundational acquisition guidance, emphasizing speed and agility in the acquisition process.
In June 2019, we reported that DOD made progress in implementing reforms to restructure the oversight of major defense acquisition programs, including shifting decision-making authority for many programs from the Office of the Secretary of Defense to military departments. Since March 2019, DOD leadership has recognized the evolving challenges the department faces in fielding weapon systems that meet warfighter needs and has consistently taken steps to address them. It will also need to address leadership-related recommendations. However, to sustain the met rating for this criterion, DOD will need to ensure it follows through to complete the implementation of new initiatives. DOD continues to demonstrate a strong commitment, at the highest levels, to improving the management of its weapon system acquisitions.
Since our 2019 High-Risk Report, our assessment of the Department of Defense’s (DOD) performance against our five criteria remains unchanged.