Grassley: The Office of Net Assessment is a Failure

Prepared Floor Remarks by U.S. Senator Chuck Grassley of Iowa

The Office of Net Assessment is a Failure

Monday, February 7, 2022

 

On November 18 last year, I came to the floor to speak about the Office of Net Assessment within the Pentagon.

 

That office’s purpose is to produce an annual net assessment, which is a long term look at our military’s capabilities and those of our greatest adversaries.

 

In 2018, according to the Director of the ONA, that office hadn’t produced a net assessment since 2007. Not doing its job for 11 years, and possibly more, calls into question whether this office should even exist.

 

Yet, a recent Inspector General report states that the office “produces…highly classified net assessments.”

 

I question their conclusion based on the available evidence.

 

In last year’s floor speech, and others over the years, I discussed my oversight of this office dating back to 2019.

 

I also discussed my amendment to the national defense bill.

 

That amendment would’ve done one very simple thing: require the Government Accountability Office to determine how much taxpayer money the Office of Net Assessment actually uses for net assessments.

 

I want to know how much we can cut from their budget to save the taxpayer money.

 

Apparently, that type of pro-taxpayer legislation was too much to ask for.

 

Accordingly, it appears that the Office of Net Assessment gets to keep operating like a Pentagon slush fund for irrelevant and political research projects.

 

On February 5, 2020, the Director of the Office of Net Assessment told me, “We review all deliverables to ensure they’re consistent with the statement of work. We evaluate each deliverable to assess whether we should seek additional information or require a resubmission of commissioned work.”

 

I’ll return to that statement in a bit.

 

In December 2020, I asked the inspector general to take a deeper dive into the Office of Net Assessment’s contracting practices. That means connecting all the dots in the contract transactions to ensure everything matches up.

 

The inspector general reviewed 20 contracts.

 

On January 25, 2022, the inspector general issued its results and found, in part:

 

·         Office of Net Assessment acquisition personnel inappropriately performed Contracting Officer Representative duties for 20 contracts.

·         ONA acquisition personnel and an office providing contract support didn’t maintain complete contract files, including pre-award and contract administration documentation. That also included the failure to maintain signed contracts and modifications. Since 2019, I’ve repeatedly asked for a full accounting of Stefan Halper’s contracts. Either they never had one or they’ve decided to obstruct Congress.

·         ONA acquisition personnel and an office providing contract support inappropriately approved invoices for payments totaling 9.8 million dollars due to a lack of oversight. And that’s just for the 20 contracts the Inspector General sampled. Without required supporting documentation for payment, the door is wide open to fraud, theft and improper payments.

·         Without established and documented surveillance measures for ONA service contracts, the Office of Net Assessment may not have received all services outlined in contractor statements of work.

·         At this point, the next finding is no surprise:  the ONA didn’t administer contracts in accordance with federal, Defense Department and Washington Headquarters Services internal regulations and policies.

 

Further, the audit states, “Office of Net Assessment Acquisition personnel can’t verify whether they received services, valued at 4.1 million dollars, in accordance with the statement of work.”

 

Now, let’s return to that quote from the Director of the ONA, “We review all deliverables to ensure they’re consistent with the statement of work. We evaluate each deliverable to assess whether we should seek additional information or require a resubmission of commissioned work.”

 

Based on the available evidence, his statement is false.

 

Here’s the bottom line: the ONA has no clue what they’re paying for and whether they’ve even received complete work product.

 

And whatever they’re actually doing, it’s not in compliance with federal regulations, policy and law.

 

This is a complete embarrassment and a slap in the face to the American taxpayer.

 

While the ONA wasted millions of dollars in taxpayer money every year, the communist Chinese government developed hypersonic missiles that can travel the globe.

 

If this unit isn’t doing the job they’re supposed to do, why are we still funding it?

 

It’d be better to take their 20 million dollar budget and give it our service members. At least we know they’ve earned it.

 

A government slush fund will always be a government slush fund unless the Congress steps up and fixes the problem.