Defense Management: U.S. Southern Command Demonstrates Interagency Collaboration, but Its Haiti Disaster Response Revealed Challenges Conducting a Large Military Operation
GAO-10-801
Published: Jul 28, 2010. Publicly Released: Jul 28, 2010.
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Highlights
U.S. Southern Command (SOUTHCOM) has been cited as having mature interagency processes and coordinating mechanisms. As evidenced by the earthquakes that shook Haiti in January 2010, the challenges that SOUTHCOM faces require coordinated efforts from U.S. government agencies, international partners, and nongovernmental and private organizations. This report (1) assesses the extent that SOUTHCOM exhibits key attributes that enhance and sustain collaboration with interagency and other stakeholders and (2) evaluates SOUTHCOM's approach for developing an organizational structure that facilitates interagency collaboration and positions the command to conduct a full range of missions. To conduct this review, GAO analyzed SOUTHCOM documents, conducted interviews with the command and a number of its partners, and visited three U.S. embassies in the Caribbean and Central and South America.
Recommendations
Recommendations for Executive Action
| Agency Affected | Recommendation | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Department of Defense | To improve SOUTHCOM's ability to conduct the full range of military missions that may be required in the region, while balancing its efforts to support interagency and other stakeholders in enhancing regional security and cooperation, the Secretary of Defense should direct the Commander, U.S. Southern Command to revise SOUTHCOM's Organization and Functions Manual to align organizational structure and manpower resources to meet approved missions, to include both daily mission and contingency operation requirements. |
In January of 2010, U.S. Southern Command reorganized from an enterprise to a hybrid structure (doctrinally-based-J-coded headquarters with an interagency focus). The Commander directed a billet-level review of current manpower aligned against U.S. Southern Command's theater campaign plan and assigned mission sets. The resulting adjustments are reflected in the updated U.S. Southern Command Pamphlet 0103-Organization and Functions Manual published on June 15, 2012. This action meets the intent of our recommendation.
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| Department of Defense | To improve SOUTHCOM's ability to conduct the full range of military missions that may be required in the region, while balancing its efforts to support interagency and other stakeholders in enhancing regional security and cooperation, the Secretary of Defense should direct the Commander, U.S. Southern Command to identify personnel augmentation requirements for a range of contingency operations, develop plans to obtain these personnel when needed, and exercise and assess these augmentation plans. |
U.S. Southern Command (SOUTHCOM) stated that they had developed, staffed and validated Joint Manning Documents (JMDs) for: (1) Augmentation to the SOUTHCOM headquarters during a contingency, and (2) Small/Medium/Large JMDs to be utilized in conjunction with SOUTHCOM's family of contingency plans within the command's area of responsibility. SOUTHCOM exercised the augmentation of the headquarters in February 2011 during Exercise Integrated Advance, which simulated a response to Caribbean mass migration. The Command filled close to 145 headquarters JMD requirements, 74 of which were sourced by sister combatant commands and military service personnel. The remaining 71 were sourced from existing SOUTHCOM individual mobilization augmentees assigned to the Command. During Integrated Advance the SOUTHCOM saw that their new J-Code structure greatly enhanced their ability to quickly integrate augmentees and quickly transition to 24/7 contingency operations. This action satisfies the intent of our recommendation and should improve SOUTHCOM's ability to conduct the full range of military missions that may be required in its area of responsibility.
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