Getting to work on fixes to the Pentagon’s broken budgeting system

No one particularly likes the way the Defense Department and
Congress handle the DoD budgeting process. It’s rigid, inflexible, and very
slow. But the PPBE process, as it’s called, has been encoded into the DNA of
the Defense bureaucracy for more than 60 years, and turning the ship around is
going to be very tough.  

That’s why there are at least two panels of experts who’ll
be working on the problem over the next year or more: one chartered by Congress, and
one organized by the American Society of Military Comptrollers. On this week’s
show, Jared Serbu talks with several participants in the latter group: 

— Michael Conlin, former DoD chief data officer and chairman
of the ASMC PPBE Reform Task Force  

— George Kovatch, former DoD deputy comptroller and ASMC task
force member 

— Maj. Gen. Cameron Holt (ret.), former deputy assistant
secretary of the Air Force for contracting, and member of the ASMC task force 

— Rich Brady, a retired Marine Corps colonel and the CEO of
ASMC