More Problems at Bush's Politicized Pentagon
On the heels of her prior article on the irresponsible, expanding Pentagon, Frida Berrigan has another great article at Foreign Policy in Focus via Cursor.org. about the trouble at the Pentagon.
Berrigan writes: "...the Pentagon’s Inspector General’s Office recently reported to Congress that the Pentagon is unable to account for nearly $15 billion earmarked for the Iraq reconstruction effort.
"One reason that money just seems to disappear is that there are not enough people watching the books. While the Pentagon budget has soared in the past seven years, the resources and staff time devoted to making sure that money is well spent have not increased."
Another Bush administration hallmark: needlessly increase the Pentagon budget; cut oversight and staff in charge of oversight.
She continues: "In fiscal year 2007, the Pentagon contracted with companies for $316 billion in military goods and services. But the Inspector General’s Office only had the resources to track fewer than half those projects.
"According to “Assessments of Selected Weapons Programs,” a March GAO report, the Pentagon had 75 major weapons programs in production in 2000. Collectively, the programs were $42 billion over-budget and behind schedule by an average of 16 months. Today, there are 95 major weapons programs, which are $295 billion over-budget and 21 months behind schedule. Ouch.
“ 'This would never be tolerated in the private sector,' lamented Claire McCaskill (D-MO). Maybe so, but when the private sector moves into the Pentagon in a period of “more-than-enough-to-go-around” military budgets, it seems like they have no problem spending the public’s money hand over fist.
"In Iraq, private military contractors like Blackwater and Kellogg Brown and Root are doing soldiers’ work for many times the pay. PMCs – as they are called – are so ubiquitous that the United States can no longer go to war without them. According to “Additional Personal Conflict of Interest Safeguards Needed for Certain DoD Contractor Employees,” a March GAO report, the Pentagon can’t do its paperwork without private contractors either. In offices throughout the Department of Defense, cubicle mercenaries are working shoulder-to-shoulder with uniformed military staff and federal employees.
"In fiscal year 2006, the Pentagon spent more on contracting for services with private companies than they spent on weapons systems or other equipment. Over the past 10 years, contracts with private companies for services have increased 78% in real terms – to a total of more than $151 billion.
"The GAO report did not discuss contractor pay, but a separate March report “Army Case Study Delineates Concerns with Use of Contractors as Contract Specialists” assesses the Army’s Contracting Center of Excellence. There, private contractors make up less than 20% of the workforce, but they are paid far more than federal employees. The average hourly cost of a contractor employee was more than 26% higher than that of a government employee.
"For those public sector employees left at the Pentagon, the door to the corporate world is always open. In a May report titled “Post-Government Employment of Former DoD Officials Needs Greater Transparency,” the GAO found that thousands of senior Pentagon officials take refuge in the corporate world. In fact, of the almost 2,500 former Pentagon officials analyzed, almost two thirds of them went on to senior positions at just seven companies – SAIC, Northrop Grumman, Booz Allen Hamilton, L-3 Communications, Lockheed Martin, General Dynamics and Raytheon. Except for the consulting firm Booz Allen, all seven are on the Pentagon’s list of top ten contractors. Together, they received more than $87 billion in contracts from the DoD in 2007.
"Military policy will define the presidential race between Barack Obama and John McCain. Already the rhetoric is flying thick and heavy. Who knows more about the surge? Who has more Iraq stamps on his passport? Who is more bellicose toward Iran? Who is more serious about beating the terrorists?
"The answers to these questions are nothing more than political wordplay without a strategic and critical examination of the Pentagon – as the exerciser of American power abroad, as the single largest consumer of federal resources, and as a teetering bureaucratic disaster. Let’s see if either of them tackles the problems on the Potomac in a meaningful way."
The criminal Bush administration is completely rotten and department such as the DoD, directed by Bushite loyalist appointees, follow suit and are just as bad.
As I wrote once before, the Pentagon, like all the departments and agencies poisoned by the Bush administration, needs a thorough housecleaning and overhaul.
I also stated: "The Bush politicized Pentagon is like the rest of this destructive administration: irresponsible, unaccountable, deliberately failing at any effective oversight, and helping their defense industry corporate cronies (for whom many of the higher ranking military will work when they retire) to make gazillions in profit at the expense of the American taxpayers and with money borrowed by a debtor nation, the US."
Berrigan writes: "...the Pentagon’s Inspector General’s Office recently reported to Congress that the Pentagon is unable to account for nearly $15 billion earmarked for the Iraq reconstruction effort.
"One reason that money just seems to disappear is that there are not enough people watching the books. While the Pentagon budget has soared in the past seven years, the resources and staff time devoted to making sure that money is well spent have not increased."
Another Bush administration hallmark: needlessly increase the Pentagon budget; cut oversight and staff in charge of oversight.
She continues: "In fiscal year 2007, the Pentagon contracted with companies for $316 billion in military goods and services. But the Inspector General’s Office only had the resources to track fewer than half those projects.
"According to “Assessments of Selected Weapons Programs,” a March GAO report, the Pentagon had 75 major weapons programs in production in 2000. Collectively, the programs were $42 billion over-budget and behind schedule by an average of 16 months. Today, there are 95 major weapons programs, which are $295 billion over-budget and 21 months behind schedule. Ouch.
“ 'This would never be tolerated in the private sector,' lamented Claire McCaskill (D-MO). Maybe so, but when the private sector moves into the Pentagon in a period of “more-than-enough-to-go-around” military budgets, it seems like they have no problem spending the public’s money hand over fist.
"In Iraq, private military contractors like Blackwater and Kellogg Brown and Root are doing soldiers’ work for many times the pay. PMCs – as they are called – are so ubiquitous that the United States can no longer go to war without them. According to “Additional Personal Conflict of Interest Safeguards Needed for Certain DoD Contractor Employees,” a March GAO report, the Pentagon can’t do its paperwork without private contractors either. In offices throughout the Department of Defense, cubicle mercenaries are working shoulder-to-shoulder with uniformed military staff and federal employees.
"In fiscal year 2006, the Pentagon spent more on contracting for services with private companies than they spent on weapons systems or other equipment. Over the past 10 years, contracts with private companies for services have increased 78% in real terms – to a total of more than $151 billion.
"The GAO report did not discuss contractor pay, but a separate March report “Army Case Study Delineates Concerns with Use of Contractors as Contract Specialists” assesses the Army’s Contracting Center of Excellence. There, private contractors make up less than 20% of the workforce, but they are paid far more than federal employees. The average hourly cost of a contractor employee was more than 26% higher than that of a government employee.
"For those public sector employees left at the Pentagon, the door to the corporate world is always open. In a May report titled “Post-Government Employment of Former DoD Officials Needs Greater Transparency,” the GAO found that thousands of senior Pentagon officials take refuge in the corporate world. In fact, of the almost 2,500 former Pentagon officials analyzed, almost two thirds of them went on to senior positions at just seven companies – SAIC, Northrop Grumman, Booz Allen Hamilton, L-3 Communications, Lockheed Martin, General Dynamics and Raytheon. Except for the consulting firm Booz Allen, all seven are on the Pentagon’s list of top ten contractors. Together, they received more than $87 billion in contracts from the DoD in 2007.
"Military policy will define the presidential race between Barack Obama and John McCain. Already the rhetoric is flying thick and heavy. Who knows more about the surge? Who has more Iraq stamps on his passport? Who is more bellicose toward Iran? Who is more serious about beating the terrorists?
"The answers to these questions are nothing more than political wordplay without a strategic and critical examination of the Pentagon – as the exerciser of American power abroad, as the single largest consumer of federal resources, and as a teetering bureaucratic disaster. Let’s see if either of them tackles the problems on the Potomac in a meaningful way."
The criminal Bush administration is completely rotten and department such as the DoD, directed by Bushite loyalist appointees, follow suit and are just as bad.
As I wrote once before, the Pentagon, like all the departments and agencies poisoned by the Bush administration, needs a thorough housecleaning and overhaul.
I also stated: "The Bush politicized Pentagon is like the rest of this destructive administration: irresponsible, unaccountable, deliberately failing at any effective oversight, and helping their defense industry corporate cronies (for whom many of the higher ranking military will work when they retire) to make gazillions in profit at the expense of the American taxpayers and with money borrowed by a debtor nation, the US."
Comments