National Security Issues

This report is part of the transition series, a set of 28 reports summarizing GAO's findings on major problems confronting federal agencies, as well as economic and management issues facing Congress and the incoming Administration. One cluster of transition reports, including those on the budget deficit and investment, addresses broad policy issues affecting government as a whole and its relationship to the economy. Another group of reports addresses issues affecting specific federal agencies, such as the Defense Department and the Internal Revenue Service. A third group of reports looks at cross-cutting management issues--everything from financial management to information management. GAO highlighted many of these problems in a similar set of reports issued in 1988. In some instances, progress has been made; all too often, however, the problems have continued to fester and grow worse. In general, the state of management in the federal government is poor. Too many management ideas--and resulting agency structures and processes--that worked well in the past now hinder the government from responding quickly and effectively to a world in tremendous flux. Most agencies have no strategic vision of the future, lack sound systems to collect and apply financial and program information to gauge operational success and accountability, and too often do without people with the skills necessary to accomplish their missions. The Comptroller General summarized the series in testimony before Congress; see: Major Issues Facing a New Congress and a New Administration, by Charles A. Bowsher, Comptroller General of the United States, before the Senate Committee on Governmental Affairs. GAO/T-OCG-93-1, Jan. 8, 1993 (30 pages).

GAO found that: (1) the reassessment of military roles and missions will require a change in the defense establishment's organizational culture and could lead to more cost-effective means of meeting defense needs; (2) the Department of Defense (DOD) will need to maintain high levels of military capability while reducing the number of military and civilian employees; (3) worldwide political realignments necessitate the change in U.S. overseas military presence and security assistance programs to reflect new U.S. commitments to allies and others; (4) increased international cooperation, with U.S. leadership, will be required to control international technology transfers and to dispose of nuclear and chemical weapons; (5) DOD needs to reform its acquisition process in the face of budget cuts, but DOD will need to maintain industrial base supporting security needs; (6) DOD faces many environmental challenges, such as complying with clean air and water legislation and cleaning up hazardous wastes; and (7) DOD needs to continues its initiatives in inventory acquisition, management, and control, and in personnel and financial management to ensure efficiency and cost control.