Preliminary Observations on the Department of Defense's Counternarcotics Performance Measurement System

The Department of Defense (DOD) leads detection and monitoring of aerial and maritime transit of illegal drugs into the United States in support of law enforcement agencies. Additionally, DOD's counternarcotics activities include sharing information with U.S. and foreign agencies, as well as helping foreign countries build their counternarcotics capacity. In support of these activities, Congress provided just over $6.1 billion to DOD's Counternarcotics Central Transfer Account from fiscal year 2005 through 2010. In November 2005, GAO recommended that DOD, in conjunction with other agencies performing counternarcotics activities, develop and coordinate counternarcotics performance measures. GAO has found that measuring performance allows organizations to track the progress they are making toward their goals and provides managers a basis for making key decisions to improve programs and results. In May 2007, the Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) released a circular that required agencies, including DOD, to submit a report on their performance-related information for counternarcotics activities, including how the agency's performance measures are used in the management of the program. The National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2010 (Pub. L. No. 111-84, 1016) mandated that GAO report on the performance evaluation system used by DOD to assess its counternarcotics activities. To satisfy this mandate, in April 2010, we briefed congressional staff from the defense committees. This letter summarizes the preliminary observations conveyed during those briefings.