Acquisition Reform: Implementing Defense Management Review Initiatives

Abstract

DOD has made several of the changes to its acquisition system that were recommended by the Packard Commission. DOD, for example, has streamlined the acquisition management structure, established the position of Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, and limited formal reporting requirements. The Packard Commission concluded that DOD's acquisition system had become an increasingly bureaucratic and overregulated process in which acquisition policy- making and program management responsibility were fragmented and diluted. The Commission painted, in its words, a 'stark' picture of a highly competitive acquisition system in which program managers, buffeted by numerous internal and external pressures, become 'supplicants' for, rather than managers of, major new defense systems. These competitive pressures resulted in a 'huckster psychology' that leads program managers to optimistically interpret information about a system's cost, schedule, and performance.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Aug 01, 1991
Accession Number
ADA239423

Entities

Organizations

  • United States Government Accountability Office

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Human Systems
  • Weapons Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Acquisition
  • Business Administration
  • Contractors
  • Contracts
  • Cost Analysis
  • Cost Estimates
  • Defense Industry
  • Defense Systems
  • Government Procurement
  • Governments
  • Management Personnel
  • Military Acquisition
  • National Security
  • Procurement
  • Program Management
  • Test And Evaluation
  • Weapon Systems

Readers

  • Defense Acquisition Program Management
  • Military History of the United States in the 20th Century.