Improving the Oversight of Defense Agencies and DoD Field Activities.

Public Law 99-433, known as the Goldwater-Nichols DoD Reorganization Act of 1986, requires that the Secretary of Defense conduct a number of studies of the functions and organization of the Department of Defense. One such study, required by Title III of the Act, encompasses the functions and organizational structure of Defense Agencies and DoD Field Activities AFAs to determine the most effective, economical, and efficient means for providing supplies or services common to more than one military department. This report addresses one of the many topics of that study oversight relationships exercised by the Secretary of Defense and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of StaffCJCS over the AFAs. Oversight is the responsibility of an official to oversee the activities of a subsidiary organization. This responsibility involves providing policy guidance, supporting necessary resource requests, requiring and reviewing structured reports covering status, performance, and problems, and maintaining constant liaison. Oversight involves exercising authority, when necessary, to assure that each subsidiary element performs its mission and that it has the opportunity to perform without encountering undue obstacles. The failure of a subsidiary organization to perform its mission reflects adversely on the officials oversight. The oversight relationship, then, between an official and the subsidiary organization significantly affects the quality of performance achieved by both.