OSD's Obligation and Expenditure Rate Goals: An Examination of the Factors Contributing to the Interference

Several months ago, Dr. Nancy Spruill, director of Acquisition Resources and Analysis, Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics OUSD ATL, solicited support from the Defense Acquisition University DAU to help uncover the causal factors that could be interfering with attainment of the Obligation and Expenditure rate goals of the Office of the Secretary of Defense OSD. Decades earlier, OSD instituted these goals as a benchmark to help weapon systems program offices maintain the required execution pace of appropriated funding. However, due to a number of internal and external factors, Department of Defense DoD acquisition programs have sometimes found it difficult to meet these goals. To learn more about the intervening obstacles, DAU with assistance from OSD developed a comprehensive survey that queried experienced and high-level DoD personnel involved in a weapon program s decision chain. What we learned from the subsequent analysis confirmed several previous suspicions. The data also indicated the prevalence of more underlining perception variances among many of the factors that could be undermining program execution itself. The study results were presented to Assistant Secretary of Defense for Acquisition Katharina McFarland and other senior OSD personnel. It also reinforced the value of the memorandum on the disposition of DoD s unobligated funds, which was signed jointly by Under Secretary of Defense ATL Frank Kendall and Under Secretary of Defense Comptroller Robert F. Hale.