How in the Lord's name can we feel the remotest confidence in the management of the Defense Department? The latest GAO report on the operation and support of major weapons systems found an unbelievable number of inconsistencies in the reporting by DOD. Here's an excerpt from the report:
Program offices were inconsistent in (1) the explanatory information they included with the cost estimates; (2) the source of the cost estimate they cited as the basis for the reported costs; (3) the unit of measure they used to portray average costs; (4) the frequency with which they updated reported costs; and (5) the reporting of costs for an antecedent system being replaced by the new weapon system. For example, 35 (42 percent) of the 84 programs that reported O&S costs in the 2010 SAR did not cite a source of these data, contrary to DOD’s guidance, and 57 (68 percent) of the programs did not report O&S costs for an antecedent system. Also, O&S cost submissions in the SAR did not always incorporate best practices for presenting cost estimates, such as tracking cost changes over time and identifying cost drivers. In addition, 11 systems did not provide O&S cost estimates in the 2010 SAR.
Do you get the feeling that the cuts proposed by DOD are simply window dressing? There is a lot more that can be cut and used to make this nation better.
No comments:
Post a Comment