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Report | Nov. 20, 2017

Top DoD Management Challenges - Fiscal Year 2018

The following is the DoD Office of Inspector General’s (OIG) statement on the top management and performance challenges facing the DoD. The challenges outlined in this statement were identified based on a variety of factors, including DoD OIG oversight work, research, and judgment; oversight work done by other DoD components; oversight projects conducted by the GAO; and input from DoD officials. While we also reviewed DoD statements, documents, and assessments of these and other critical issues, we identified these top challenges independently.

The DoD OIG also uses this document as a research and planning tool to identify areas of risk in the DoD operations. It is forward looking and outlines the most significant management and performance challenges facing the DoD now and in the future.

This year’s summary of challenges is for FY 2018 rather than for FY 2017. In previous years, the document’s title contained the year of the DoD financial statement that included this report. While last year’s report was labelled as FY 2016, this year we labelled the document as the top management challenges for FY 2018 to reflect its forward-looking orientation. Therefore, no document is labelled FY 2017 summary of management challenges, but there has been no gap in our top management challenges documents.

As reflected in this document, the FY 2018 top 10 management and performance challenges are:

  1. Countering Strategic Challenges: North Korea, Russia, China, Iran, and Transnational Terrorism
  2. Addressing Challenges in Overseas Contingency Operations in Iraq, Syria, and Afghanistan
  3. Enabling Effective Acquisition and Contract Management
  4. Increasing Cyber Security and Cyber Capabilities
  5. Improving Financial Management
  6. Maintaining the Nuclear Enterprise
  7. Optimally Balancing Readiness, Modernization, and Force Structure
  8. Ensuring Ethical Conduct
  9. Providing Effective, Comprehensive, and Cost Effective Health Care
  10. Identifying and Implementing Efficiencies in the DoD