GAO, Pentagon at odds over management

The head of the Government Accountability Office and the Pentagon's top acquisition official disagreed Wednesday over how much the military has done to improve business practices and over GAO's proposal to create a second deputy Defense secretary to oversee departmental management efforts.

Comptroller General David Walker delivered a scathing report on Pentagon management, telling the Senate Armed Services Readiness Subcommittee that eight of government programs labeled "high-risk" by GAO were in the Defense Department.

Five of those have been on the "high-risk" list a decade or more.

Because of the "long-standing nature" of the Pentagon's management problems, "it would be prudent to create a new chief management officer," Walker said, adding that the position should be a deputy secretary appointed by the president and confirmed by the Senate for a fixed, seven-year term.

But Michael Wynne, the Defense undersecretary for acquisition, technology and logistics, described a number of improvements in business practices and business management made.

"I think you'd find we are much more efficient that GAO thinks," Wynne said. Adding a new deputy secretary for management "would just add an additional layer of management, which is the last thing we need," he added.