Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The Department of Defense (DOD) faces complex financial and management problems that are deeply rooted in DOD's business operations and management culture. During the past 12 years, DOD has begun several broad-based departmentwide reform efforts to overhaul its financial operations and other key business areas. These efforts have been unsuccessful. GAO identified several key elements that are essential to the success of any DOD financial management reform effort. These include (1) addressing the department's financial management challenges as part of a comprehensive, integrated, DOD-wide business reform; (2) providing for sustained leadership and resource control to implement needed reforms; (3) establishing clear lines of responsibility, authority, and accountability for such reform; (4) incorporating results-oriented performance measures and monitoring tied to the reforms; (5) providing appropriate incentives or consequences for action or inaction; (6) establishing and implementing an enterprise architecture to guide and direct financial management and modernization investments, and (7) ensuring effective oversight and monitoring."

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The United States spent $50 billion (2002 dollars) on food aid between 1979 and 2003. Notwithstanding these sizable donations and donations by other countries, the need for food aid in the developing world far exceeds available supply. U.S. food aid is provided through six programs administered by the Department of Agriculture and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). These programs use various methods for providing resources and have different ways of delivering aid to the recipient nations. USAID manages the largest program--P.L. 480, Title II--using annual appropriations to purchase commodities that are then donated to recipient nations principally through private voluntary organizations and the World Food Program. The large fluctuations in U.S. food aid since 1990 are the result of three key factors: U.S. food aid policies, agricultural surpluses, and international events. The success of food aid programs in meeting their objectives is hampered by the competing objectives of the programs and by management weaknesses such as a lack of management attention to monitoring and accountability in food aid programs."