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Report | Nov. 12, 2021

Top DoD Management Challenges – Fiscal Year 2022

DoD OIG

The Top DoD Management Challenges document identifies the top management and performance challenges impacting the DoD for FY 2022 and beyond.  Each Inspector General is required by law to prepare this annual statement summarizing what the IG considers the “most serious management and performance challenges facing the agency.” These challenges are based on the DoD OIG’s independent research, assessment, and judgment; previous oversight work and oversight work of other organizations; congressional hearings and legislation; input from DoD officials; and issues raised by the media. The DoD OIG also considers and assesses the DoD’s progress in addressing these challenges. This report provides Congress and the DoD’s civilian and military leaders an independent assessment of the management and performance challenges confronting the DoD.  Finally, the Top DoD Management Challenges document must be included in the DoD’s annual financial report.

The FY 2022 Top DoD Management Challenges are:

1. Maintaining the Advantage in Strategic Competition

2. Assuring Space Dominance, Nuclear Deterrence, and Missile Defense

3. Strengthening DoD Cyberspace Operations and Securing Systems, Networks, and Data

4. Reinforcing the Supply Chain While Reducing Reliance on Strategic Competitors

5. Increasing Agility in the DoD’s Acquisition and Contract Management

6. Improving DoD Financial Management and Budgeting

7. Building Resiliency to Environmental Stresses

8. Protecting the Health and Wellness of Service Members and their Families

9. Recruiting and Retaining a Modern Workforce

10. Preserving Trust and Confidence in the DoD

The challenges are not listed in order of priority or importance, but are instead organized as follows. Challenges 1 through 3 relate to the DoD’s mission and how it executes that mission across multiple domains. Challenges 4 through 6 relate to how the DoD buys and pays for what it needs to accomplish the mission. Challenge 7 is about the installations from which the DoD operates and how those installations must be protected. Finally, challenges 8 through 10 focus on the health, hiring, and composition of the DoD civilian and military workforce.