Information Collection Challenges Could Exacerbate Budget Tensions

As agencies increasingly rely on data to make decisions, information collection is more important than ever for budget justification, oversight and compliance requirements. Defense News recently reported on rising fears of sequestration as the Pentagon turns to its financial plans for 2016. During a speech earlier this month, Army General Charles Jacoby, head of U.S. Northern Command and North American Aerospace Defense Command, said that financial uncertainty makes it “virtually impossible right now to make a strategic decision.”

Echoing Gen. Jacoby’s concerns, Senator Jeff Sessions, ranking Republican on the Senate Budget Committee and member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, commented: “It simply may be that the Defense Department cannot, under the current global environment we find ourselves in, meet [spending] targets and we’re going to have to have more money.” Sessions’ sentiment sounds familiar for departments and agencies throughout the government, but when proprietary spending information was released regarding the intelligence community’s ‘black budget,’ for instance, commentators noticed the troubling appearance of waste and significant lack of accountability. The document indicated an apparent inability of people directly involved to monitor the destination of money spent, a revelation that discredits claims that more money is necessary to achieve mission.

Another 2013 investigation by Reuters concluded that the thousands of false numbers in the Pentagon’s books reveal its “chronic failure to keep track of its money” and inability to keep track of its “vast stores of weapons, ammunition, and other supplies.”

Federal and defense employees themselves appear to be aware of information collection problems. According to a recent GBC survey of federal managers, 83 percent of respondents stated that their agencies could improve their information collection practices. The survey also revealed that federal leaders in many agencies have difficulty processing data using available tools-- they indicated that they would benefit from upgrading to technologies that transmit information over a wireless network, allowing the automation of tasks previously done by inspectors and analysts. There are a variety of available tools that can perform these functions, although GBC’s results reveal that few federal managers know of their existence.

For more on information collection strategies, read GBC’s full report here.