Inside Defense
Nov. 17, 2009 -- Deputy Defense Secretary William Lynn has launched a sweeping review of the entire Office of the Secretary of Defense -- an undertaking aimed at reducing the number of deputy under secretaries of defense from 28 to five, and a possible precursor to a much wider set of management reforms.
“I am directing a review of the organization, structure and titling within OSD,” Lynn writes in a Nov. 16 memo announcing the assessment, which ostensibly is being carried out to comply with a prevision of the 2010 National Defense Authorization Act that requires the Pentagon to report on plans for streamlining the number of deputy under secretaries.
Pentagon sources say Lynn also is considering an ambitious set of Defense Department management reforms, in the works since this spring and previewed only to a small circle of senior leaders, that may be folded into this review (DefenseAlert, June 3).
Indeed, the deputy defense secretary states in his memo that the scope of the review will be wider than Congress’ immediate concern in the authorization act, which is the number of deputy under secretaries of defense.
The review, he writes, “will be used to identify, inform, and treat, as appropriate, other relevant OSD organizational and structural issues.”
To conduct the review, Lynn has set up a senior working group -- led by his special assistant, Sandra Hodgkinson -- that includes representatives from the roughly 15 offices that directly report to the defense secretary, according to the memo. The memo directs each under secretary of defense to provide updated organizational charts illustrating their offices’ reporting relationships and titling conventions as well as details about the total number of personnel in each shop.
In addition, each deputy under secretary of defense is to describe the major functions of their office; “major partners both inside and outside” the parent organization; and any major recent organizational, functional and manpower changes.
“Congress is interested in quickly enacting any required changes in statute,” Lynn writes, noting that lawmakers have said the Pentagon’s reorganization plan should be provided to them by March 15, 2010.
“In order to meet this suspense, this review will need to move expeditiously in the collection of information,” the deputy defense secretary writes, seeking replies to the requested data by Nov. 23.
In finalizing the FY-10 defense authorization bill this summer, Congress granted the Pentagon a brief reprieve from a looming requirement to abolish nearly two dozen deputy under secretary of defense positions this fall -- a step Defense Department officials believe would severely disrupt management of the military enterprise -- and set a Jan. 1, 2011, deadline for DOD to realign its leadership structure (DefenseAlert, Oct. 8).
Sen. Carl Levin (D-MI), chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, this spring expressed concern that the growing number of high-level billets established by the defense secretary -- particularly the proliferation of deputy under secretaries -- has created confusion over who reports to whom (DefenseAlert, May 15).
The Pentagon has 28 deputy under secretaries of defense, five of which are called for by statute; the rest have been established at the discretion of the defense secretary. In some instances, deputy under secretaries of defense report to other officials with the same title.
Pentagon officials successfully prevailed on Congress for an opportunity to address the issue internally. Lawmakers agreed to give the Pentagon time to independently realign senior executive positions and to identify which five positions will be designated deputy under secretaries of defense. -- Jason Sherman
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