The Defense Department incorrectly assumed it was ready to deal with the crisis caused by the coronavirus pandemic and officials found themselves scrambling to learn about the specific challenges while also formulating plans for how to handle it, a top Pentagon official said.
Lisa Hershman, the chief management officer for the Defense Department, spoke Monday on a webinar hosted by FedInsider about lessons learned from the pandemic. Her primary assessment concluded the Defense Department was underprepared, but that it had a lot of room to adapt its practices as the crisis unfolded.
“We learned that number one: We can react swiftly and appropriately to put the employees’ best interests ahead of everything else as well as stay on mission for the important,” Hershman said.
The Pentagon is known for its ability to predict and plan, and in fact, the Defense Department warned of the potential for a pandemic caused by a novel coronavirus as early as 2017, according to an internal document obtained by The Nation. The document warned not only of a pandemic but that the United States would likely face shortages of critical supplies including ventilators and face masks.
Nonetheless, Hershman and Alan Shaffer, deputy undersecretary of Defense for acquisition and sustainment, emphasized that the pivot to mass telework has largely been a success. Shaffer also spoke on the webinar.
“We really shattered the myth that you cannot do any work at DOD via a telework situation,” Hershman said.
At one point, only 6,000 people of the normal 23,000 were reporting in-person to the Pentagon each day. Shaffer said he was surprised by how effective the acquisition ..
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