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Defense Management: Comprehensive Strategy and Annual Reporting Are Needed to Measure Progress and Costs of DOD's Global Posture Restructuring

GAO-06-852 Published: Sep 13, 2006. Publicly Released: Sep 13, 2006.
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Highlights

The Department of Defense's (DOD) Integrated Global Posture and Basing Strategy calls for a comprehensive restructuring of U.S. forces overseas. DOD's planned changes will require billions of dollars to implement at a time when DOD is supporting operations in Iraq and realigning domestic bases. As requested, GAO examined (1) the extent to which DOD has articulated a global posture strategy that has the characteristics necessary to guide its efforts and to achieve desired results and (2) the challenges that could affect DOD's implementation of its strategy and the mechanisms DOD has in place to inform Congress of its overall progress in achieving global posture goals.

Recommendations

Matter for Congressional Consideration

Matter Status Comments
The Congress may wish to consider requiring that DOD report annually on the status and costs of its plans to implement global basing initiatives to ensure that it has more comprehensive and routine information to guide it in overseeing this important effort. Congress may wish to require that DOD include in such a report all the elements of an effective national strategy--such as performance metrics--as well as the status of host-nation negotiations, the evolving costs of global posture initiatives, and a process for assigning management responsibility for operating and funding the locations DOD is planning in its worldwide network of sites.
Closed – Implemented
In its Committee Report accompanying the Military Construction and Veterans Affairs and Related Agencies Appropriations Bill, 2008 (Senate Report 110-85--to accompany S. 1645, June 18, 2007), the Senate Committee on Appropriations directed DOD to provide an updated report on the Global Defense Posture initiative. In the next year's Committee Report, the Congress made this update an annual requirement. In that second-year Committee Report accompanying the Military Construction and Veterans Affairs and Related Agencies Appropriation Bill, 2009 (Senate Report 110-428--to accompany S. 3301, July 28, 2008), the Senate Committee on Appropriations stated that they were making this an annual requirement because of "continued concern over the possibility of changes to the global defense posture." DOD must now submit a report each year through fiscal year 2014.

Recommendations for Executive Action

Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Department of Defense To facilitate DOD's management and implementation of its global basing strategy and to establish a clear and routine method of informing Congress of significant changes to the strategy and progress in achieving its goals, the Secretary of Defense should develop an updated strategy document that includes the six characteristics of an effective national strategy as discussed in this report, including performance measures and metrics for assessing progress in achieving stated goals.
Closed – Not Implemented
DOD took no action. It stated that the recommended strategy framework, with some modification, may serve as a helpful implementation tool in the future, but it does not necessitate updating the global defense posture strategy. DOD stated that the strategy outlined in the 9/04 report to Congress was not intended to serve as a formal, comprehensive management mechanism for posture changes. DOD stated that performance metrics, while critical to assessing progress, would more logically fit in an implementation plan, not a broad strategy document.
Department of Defense To facilitate DOD's management and implementation of its global basing strategy and to establish a clear and routine method of informing Congress of significant changes to the strategy and progress in achieving its goals, the Secretary of Defense should summarize the status of host-nation negotiations and annually update DOD's global basing strategy to reflect changes resulting from these negotiations.
Closed – Implemented
DOD has now submitted two annual Global Posture reports to Congress (October, 2008 and October, 2009) that provides the status of host nation negotiations and updates to the basing strategy.
Department of Defense To facilitate DOD's management and implementation of its global basing strategy and to establish a clear and routine method of informing Congress of significant changes to the strategy and progress in achieving its goals, the Secretary of Defense should periodically update DOD's estimate of the total cost to implement the global basing strategy and identify the extent to which these costs are included in DOD's future years defense program.
Closed – Implemented
DOD has now submitted two annual Global Posture reports to Congress (October, 2008 and October, 2009) that includes updated military construction cost information, and recognizes that capturing the cost of military construction funding alone does not reflect the full cost of changes to the Global Defense Posture. To this end, DOD has established a requirement for Combatant Commands and military Services to provide credible cost estimates for global posture initiatives, including host nation contributions, personnel costs, and infrastructure estimates associated with global posture initiatives in their respective areas of responsibility. We believe these actions are responsive to the intent of our recommendations.
Department of Defense To facilitate DOD's management and implementation of its global basing strategy and to establish a clear and routine method of informing Congress of significant changes to the strategy and progress in achieving its goals, the Secretary of Defense should establish a process to prioritize, assign management responsibility for, and fund the network of operating locations DOD is planning.
Closed – Implemented
In February 2008, DOD established the Global Posture Executive Council to be the first formal governance body responsible for facilitating posture decisions and overseeing the assessment and implementation of posture plans. The Executive Council and the supporting Global Posture Integration Team include senior and staff-level representatives, respectively, from OSD offices and Joint Staff directorates, the combatant commands, the services, and the State Department. As we reported in July, 2009, the Executive Council has contributed to DOD decisions on significant posture-related matters, such as the location of the U.S. Africa Command headquarters and global mobility infrastructure. We believe DOD's actions to establish these global posture governance organizations were responsive to the intent of our recommendation.
Department of Defense To facilitate DOD's management and implementation of its global basing strategy and to establish a clear and routine method of informing Congress of significant changes to the strategy and progress in achieving its goals, the Secretary of Defense should develop a periodic reporting process that summarizes to Congress the above information, includes progress in achieving performance goals, and complements but does not duplicate information contained in DOD's annual comprehensive master plans for overseas military infrastructure.
Closed – Implemented
DOD has submitted, and will be required to submit through fiscal year 2014, an annual Global Defense Posture report to Congress. This reporting requirement was established in response to GAO's Matter for Congressional Consideration.

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Topics

Defense capabilitiesDefense cost controlFederal agency reorganizationMilitary basesMilitary forcesPerformance measuresProgram evaluationReporting requirementsStrategic forcesStrategic planningProgram implementationProgram goals or objectives