“Budget cuts and lax metrics have slowed a three-year-old push by Defense to track the department’s efficiency initiatives,” Defense One reports.

“A 2010 directive from then-Defense Secretary Robert Gates aimed to save $100 billion in overhead costs by 2016 through efficiencies identified by each of the military services as well as the Special Operations Command, consistent with the Office of Management and Budget’s cost containment recommendations. Although the services made some progress, GAO wrote, it “has largely occurred on an ad hoc basis and varies by initiative because DoD has not required such evaluations. As a result, the Pentagon still “lacks a systematic basis for evaluating whether its various initiatives have improved the efficiency or effectiveness of its programs or activities.”