GAO faults effort to counter roadside bombs

House lawmakers from both parties on Thursday expressed frustration with the Pentagon office charged with developing ways to defeat roadside bombs in Iraq and Afghanistan, seizing on a GAO review that uncovered bureaucratic and administrative problems that threaten efforts to counter Improvised Explosive Devices.

In a report released on Thursday, GAO found that the Joint Improved Explosive Device Defeat Organization has taken steps to improve internal problems, but "several significant challenges" affect the Defense Department's ability to oversee the office.

For one thing, JIEDDO does not have a way to gauge the effectiveness of its counter-IED efforts, GAO said. Neither JIEDDO nor the military services have a comprehensive database outlining existing counter-IED efforts, limiting the Defense Department's ability to monitor the full range of initiatives.

The office, which began operations in early 2006, lacks the internal oversight capabilities necessary to assure Pentagon officials it is achieving its objectives, GAO said. The office does not have clear criteria to determine which counter-IED training initiatives deserve its financial support, GAO said.

If the issues are not resolved, GAO warned that the Defense Department could duplicate its efforts, fail to address gaps in capabilities and create problems in integrating various technologies.

"We think there's some things going on within the processes of government that may be interfering with our ability to" stop the prevalence of roadside bombs, said House Armed Services Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee Chairman Vic Snyder, D-Ark., who presided over a hearing to review GAO's findings.

"We have got to be sure that everything is functioning as well as it can be," Snyder said. "That's how human beings get things done is to be as efficient as they can be."

In response to the GAO report, the investigative agency's fifth study of the office's activities, the JIEDDO director, Lt. Gen. Thomas Metz, said he found the reviews generally helpful.

But he added that data in the GAO report is six months old and said he has taken steps to improve many of the areas where investigators found problems. Metz also took issue with claims that his office is less than transparent.

"I have ... too many people who understand how important the IED problem is that are looking at us," Metz said during a break in the hearing. "There is no hidden initiative that goes unsupervised."

During the hearing, Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., the only member of Congress to have served in Iraq and Afghanistan, questioned whether the Defense Department has put enough energy behind catching insurgents, particularly when they are planting IEDs.

"The buck has to stop with you because we don't have anybody else," he told Metz. "There is no other IED defeat organization in Washington or anywhere else in the U.S. government ... whose sole mission is to stop IEDs."