The ongoing – and so far unsuccessful – Pentagon quest to streamline management, reform acquisition and achieve audit-readiness likely will begin a new chapter soon under a new Defense Department deputy chief management officer.

Peter Levine, who formerly Senate Armed Services Committee general counsel and staff director, on April 21 appeared before the SASC for a confirmation hearing in which he outlined how he'd shepherd forward the DCMO office's reform efforts. He acknowledged that reviewing DoD management processes and overhauling business systems remain the office's two toughest challenges, and said they would take first priority if he's confirmed.

Levine said that reviews of management organizations and processes and of military investments in new business systems and functions should remain at the top of the DCMO to-do list, despite the struggles in both areas that have marred previous efforts.

Levine would be only the second DCMO, following Beth McGrath, who retired in 2013. The office was created in 2008 – under legislation Levine himself helped craft – to "better synchronize, integrate and coordinate the business operations of the Department of Defense to ensure optimal alignment in support of the warfighting mission," according to the DCMO website.

Since then, DCMO leadership has undertaken significant efforts to reach those goals, often coming up short – including ongoing struggles with inefficiencies and wasteful spending, and the likelihood that the Pentagon will miss a 2017 deadline for audit readiness.

"The idea was to elevate the issue of management within the department and give it top-level attention so we can address some of these problems that can go on for years and years and never be solved," Levine said during the hearing. "There's only been one DCMO to date…and I don't think she got the support from the top level of the department to really take on some of these problems."

The 2017 deadline was written into law by Congress in 2010, but in the hearing, Levine acknowledged it is unlikely to be met. Looking beyond 2017, Levine noted that it will be critical to maintain focus on audit-readiness even if the deadline is missed.

"There has been definite progress…but we're not where we need to be. And frankly one of the things that we really need to be thinking about in the Department of Defense is, if I'm right and we don't make the 2017 deadline, how do we keep pressure on after 2017?" Levine said "If we get to 2017 and it didn't happen, how do we ensure the pressure remains on in 2018 and we don't say, 'well we blew it, time to give up and go home.' We can't afford for that to happen."

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