Defense Management

The Army contracted with the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in June 1996 to do a comprehensive study of the management and configuration of the ammunition industrial base, which includes both government-owned and private sector ammunition plants. The study, completed the following year, recommended several ways to address the fragmentation of management responsibilities and accountability as well as the inefficiencies that affect the industrial base. The budget for conventional ammunition programs was about $2 billion in fiscal year 1999. This report reviews the Army's implementation of the study's recommendations. GAO assesses the Army's (1) progress toward reorganizing the management of conventional ammunition to address the fragmentation issues and (2) efforts to improve business practices to enhance the efficiency of ammunition production and procurement. This is the first in a series of GAO reports that will address such issues as demilitarization, capacity utilization, and the storage of conventional ammunition.

GAO noted that: (1) the Army has made limited progress in addressing the problem of fragmented management of its conventional ammunition program; (2) senior Army leadership has been considering alternative organizational structures identified by a study team as a means of addressing the fragmentation issue; (3) however, no decisions have been made because of lack of agreement on where management of conventional ammunition would fit into the Army's organizational structure, and no milestones have been set for resolving the issue; (4) in lieu of an organizational change and recognition of the need to integrate ammunition management, the Commanders of the three commands that deal with conventional ammunition formed an informal coordination group; (5) the Commanders agreed to work together on common activities to pursue the most comprehensive and cost-effective approach to conventional ammunition management; (6) however, the coordination group's decisions are not binding and are dependent on all members agreeing to the proposed actions; (7) although the Army has not resolved the problem of fragmented management of conventional ammunition, it has developed initiatives to improve its business practices to enhance the operational efficiency of ammunition production and procurement; (8) these initiatives have not yet been completed and their outcomes have yet to be determined; and (9) further, the long-term success of these initiatives will depend upon the ability of the informal coordination group to ensure cooperation among all participants and resolve issues of common interest.

Recommendations

Our recommendations from this work are listed below with a Contact for more information. Status will change from "In process" to "Open," "Closed - implemented," or "Closed - not implemented" based on our follow up work.

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