GAO makes recommendations to improve collaboration across Department of Defense

A Government Accountability Office (GAO) report released on Wednesday found that the Department of Defense (DoD) has implemented some — but not all — of statutory requirements outlined in the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) to address organizational challenges.

The DoD drafted an organizational strategy that failed to meet a number of statutory requirements of section 911 of the NDAA for fiscal year 2017. Specifically, the strategy fails to identify how the department will foster a more collaborative culture and fails to set tangible goals.

GAO also found that DoD plans to coordinate reviews of the organizational strategy with some internal offices. However, failure to coordinate with key stakeholders like the secretary of defense and the military departments may leave the DoD not “well positioned to improve collaboration across the department.”

In an effort to address the backlog of security clearances, DoD established a cross-functional team and drafted guidance for the team that meets six of seven statutory requirements. However, GAO concluded that “fully incorporating all statutory elements and leading practices will help the teams consistently and effectively address DoD’s strategic objectives.”

GAO recommended that the secretary of defense should ensure that the chief management officer revises the organizational strategy to foster a more collaborative culture, seeks input from stakeholders, fully addresses all statutory requirements of the NDAA and provides adequate training to presidentially-appointed individuals.