Procurement reform: put the generals back in charge.

• Author: Erwin, Sandra I.
• Position: Defense Insider

Partly to blame for the dysfunction and poor performance of current Pentagon programs is a 1986 law that turned over the procurement chain of command to civilians and gutted the generals' authorities to influence buying decisions, reform proponents contend.

In hindsight, the legislation known as Goldwater-Nichols had benign intentions: To promote collaboration and sharing of resources among the branches of the military. But in doing so, it set in motion a chain of reorganizations that created an environment where everyone is in charge, but no one is held accountable for bad decisions, reform advocates say.

The chiefs oversee budgets and requirements--a complex process of writing the documentation that gives legitimacy to a program--but are not responsible for the project's performance. If they were, experts insist, they would have strong incentives to not let big-ticket boondoggles derail their careers.

A recent study by the Defense Business Board, a Pentagon advisory group of retired officers and industry executives, endorsed the idea of reversing Goldwater-Nichols so the chiefs of the services can be held accountable for the performance of acquisition programs.

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"In the last 10 years, the department has...