Since July, a special Pentagon panel, led by retired Air Force Lt. Gen. Ronald Kadish, has been gathering data to make recommendations to fix the department’s sagging acquisition oversight practices. According to Pentagon officials, the five-member Defense Acquisition Performance Assessment Project plans to deliver a top-to-bottom review to Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld by November.
A new report from the Government Accountability Office calls for the Pentagon’s Chief Technology Officer to have budget certification authority over the military services’ research and development accounts—a move the services say would add a burdensome and unnecessary layer of bureaucracy.
