Thomas Christie Explains the Failure of Acquisition Reform

Tom Christie spent almost 50 years inside the DOD acquisition apparatus, concluding his career as a top level civilian professional directing the office of Operational Test and Evaluation.  Since the 1960s, he has seen every single stab at reforming how we develop and buy weapons come and go - and fail.  Today, as measured by GAO and many others, cost overruns are higher than before, deliveries are later, and the biggest DOD budget since the end of World War II buys us the smallest, oldest force structure and weapons inventory since 1946.

 

Christie has a simple and straight forward explanation: the buying apparatus in the Pentagon, Congress and industry does not enforce the intent of the many acquisition laws and regulations, they circumvent the intent - thanks to the multiple loopholes and dodges assiduously inserted by the Pentagon and Congress.  Politely, he calls this a lack of "discipline."

 

Listen to his interview and explanation at Federal News Radio at http://www.federalnewsradio.com/?sid=2316093&nid=150.

 

This interview is part of a series; find a link to these and several other related interviews at one of the webpages devoted to the anthology, The Pentagon Labyrinth: 10 Short Essays to Help You Through It, at http://pogoblog.typepad.com/pogo/2011/03/titans-of-military-reform-go-on-the-record.html.

 

Interested in more details of Christie's explanation?  Find the text of his essay in The Pentagon Labyrinth  at http://pogoarchives.org/labyrinth/10-christie-w-covers.pdf, and find the entire text of The Pentagon Labyrinth at http://dnipogo.org/labyrinth/ or at http://www.cdi.org/program/index.cfm?programid=37.

 

Want to make a comment about Christie's or any other author's essay?  Want to hold a debate?  We welcome that.  Let me know by responding at winslowwheeler@msn.com.

 

 

_____________________________
Winslow T. Wheeler
Director
Straus Military Reform Project
Center for Defense Information
301 791-2397