Establishing a Framework for the Oversight of Major Defense Acquisition Programs

The Department of Defense (DoD) has budgeted over $134.5 billion for Fiscal Year 2004 for Acquisition, yet little is written about the personnel responsible for managing and evaluating Major Defense Acquisition Programs (MDAP), that is those who perform Acquisition Oversight. The Acquisition Oversight process has not been studied in a disciplined manner. Congress, past Administrations, and the DoD Inspector General have commissioned several studies on the Acquisition Oversight Process. Recommendations were considered and implemented such that the process evolved to where it stands today. Over 40 years separate the first iteration with the latest version. Commission reports, countless studies, and historians agree on the need for oversight in military acquisitions; they agree that the system takes too much money, takes too long, and does not perform as well as most would wish; yet they disagree on who should perform oversight. This thesis reviewed relevant literature to model historical oversight hierarchies. Then expert opinions were gathered from the studies mentioned above, on how well the oversight process modeled preformed. As expected, the oversight process has improved over time but further improvements are currently being sought. Those seeking improvement would do well to study past processes and learn from their mistakes.