Winslow T. Wheeler: Is There an Alternative to Phony Defense Savings?

[unhappycamper]

Is There an Alternative to Phony Defense Savings?
Winslow T. Wheeler
Director, Straus Military Reform Project, Center for Defense Information
Posted: October 26, 2010 02:26 PM

Despite challenges from the money heaving right, there is an emerging consensus that the Pentagon budget, now at post-World War II highs, will soon go south. The Pentagon is trying to avoid those budget cuts; it's device is to pretend reform with insignificant reductions in weapons programs, but not the money for them. Congress is trying the same with cuts that are both insignificant and deceptive. There are better alternatives.

~snip~

Right now, the Pentagon does not know how it spends its money, as the Government Accountability Office has reported for decades. It is literally "unauditable."

Routinely, DOD does not know if it has paid contactors once, twice or not at all. We recently learned it does not even know how many contractors it has, whom they employ and what they are doing. Google "audit" and "Pentagon" and read the horror stories.

Just look at a recent report from Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa). It is long, hard reading, but it details how deep the accountability problems go. Not only are the Pentagon's books a gigantic mess, it reports, but the office charged with fixing it is broken. (Find Grassley's report here.)

Since the Chief Financial Officers Act of 1990 demanded that the Pentagon learn to track its money, DOD's managers have made promise after promise to reform. Each has been broken.



unhappycamper comment: It's only trillion dollars a year we are taking about. :sarcasm: