Title: Weapons of mass destruction
Description: Although DOD compiles a biennial list of programs 'strongly related to combating WMD' and related costs, it cannot identify with precision what proportion of its resources are devoted specifically to counterproliferation. One of the key elements of an effective national strategy is identifying resources and investments necessary to execute that strategy. However, the CPRC report provides information on only budget requests; it does not provide any data on budget authority or actual outlays. In addition, visibility over how the department's resources support its counterproliferation strategies is limited, in part because those resources are not comprehensively aligned with gaps in counterproliferation capabilities identified by the Joint Staff based on inputs from the combatant commands and other DOD sources. Moreover, efforts across DOD to align resources with identified gaps in its ability to carry out its counterproliferation strategy have not been fully integrated into DOD's budget process. Although the 2009 CPRC report shows what mission areas the various programs/program elements are responsive to, it does not show what functional capability gaps they are designed to mitigate. As a result, the report does not present Congressional decision makers with a clear portrait of how counter-WMD gaps translate into DOD funding priorities. We are recommending that DOD report actual appropriations and expenditures as well as budget requests related to counterproliferation in the CPRC report and that DOD align prioritized counterproliferation capability gaps with programs and resources.
Subjects: Appropriations and expenditures, Management, Evaluation, Weapons of mass destruction, Nuclear nonproliferation, Finance, Nuclear arms control, Biological arms control, Chemical arms control, United States. Department of Defense, United States
Places: United States