DOD finance systems ripped

"Information Technology: Architecture Needed to Guide Modernization of DOD's Financial Operations"

The Defense Department is risking billions of dollars as it fixes its financial management systems because the department lacks an adequate information technology architecture to direct its efforts.

Without this kind of "blueprint" to guide DOD investments, the military services and Defense agencies will continue to find themselves operating unique and nonstandard financial processes and systems, the General Accounting Office said in a report issued May 18.

An IT architecture, much like the drawings used for building a house, details an organization's current systems, its plans for future systems and the standards that govern how systems interact.

DOD "does not currently have the management structures and processes in place to effectively develop, implement and maintain one," GAO officials said.

The report stated that as DOD "continues down this road," it risks spending billions of dollars modifying and modernizing existing financial management systems that will continue to run independently of one another.

GAO praised some of DOD's efforts, including the development of a Financial Management Improvement Plan, seen as the department's vision of its future financial management operations.

Those efforts, however, fall short of a full financial management IT architecture, GAO said. Rather, DOD should use those efforts as part of a more detailed architecture.

In a response in the report, DOD Deputy Comptroller Bruce Dauer noted that Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has appointed independent teams to study critical aspects of DOD's operations — including financial management — and provide recommendations.