Budgeting for National Defense Acquisition: Assessing System Linkage and the Impact of Transformation

摘要

In this article, the authors conduct a processual analysis (Barzelay 2003; Barzelay and Gallego, 2005) to assess evidence and test the following hypothesis: The complicated architecture and processes of national defense planning, programming, budgeting, and execution and the defense acquisition decision system lead to unintended and negative consequences for defense acquisition and procurement. The purpose of this article is to identify key points of linkage weakness or failure between Department of Defense (DoD) financial management and acquisition decision systems. The authors first describe the DoD Planning, Programming, and Budgeting (PPB) system and decision process, and then provide an analysis of recent changes to the PPB. Next, they describe the Defense Acquisition System (DAS) in detail. This leads them, by drawing on interview data, to identify systems linkages and areas of misalignment between the Planning, Programming, Budgeting, and Execution System (PPBES) and the DAS. Finally, they provide conclusions with respect to their hypothesis, analysis of consequent key problems and issues, and areas that require further research.