The DOD budget is a blackhole into which billions of dollars disappear every year, with hardly any meaningful oversight. Apparently, there is a huge paper trail indicating the DOD’s refusal to allow any real financial accountability at the so-called "Government Accountability Office (GAO)". The Pentagon has, until now, refused to tell Congress and the public how they spend their taxpayer dollars.
If Obama has his way, this will longer be the case. The administration has taken the first step in enforcing independent oversight by asking the Office of Management and Budget to draw up the new set of rules for DOD contracting. Meanwhile, the leaders of the Senate Armed Services Committee, Sens. Carl Levin (D-Mich.) and John McCain (R-Ariz.), offer their own solution: the Weapons Systems Acquisition Reform Act. Both of them have been sitting on this committee for many years; both have apparently had a "Come to Jesus" moment when it comes to DOD budget transparency.
Reading the fine print of the Levin-McCain bill provides useful insight. It calls for more competition in contracting but rushes to permit Pentagon bureaucrats to waive requirements whenever they decide such requirements would impair their own vision of “national security objectives.” The bill would create a new “cost czar” to improve price estimates, but he is not given the authority to impose his analysis on hostile weapons system advocates. Elsewhere, the bill relies on DOD to monitor itself and report back to Congress. Having done so fantastically well up to now, DOD is to fill out its own report card.
The Pentagon also lacks the sense that anyone serious is looking over its shoulder. Both in Congress and the office of the secretary of defense, people need to relearn the lost art of oversight. A congressional hearing with ignorant committee members reading questions, sometimes in a huffy tone of voice, is not oversight. Neither are policy wonk types in top Pentagon offices twiddling with organizational charts. The entrenched bureaucrats smirk as they turn such people into “mushrooms” — by keeping them in the dark and feeding them cow manure.
