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Getbig Main Boards => Politics and Political Issues Board => Topic started by: Benny B on May 22, 2009, 07:24:07 AM
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May 22, 2009
Editorial
Military-Industrial Redux
The Pentagon has been rightly shamed by reports that 96 major new weapons programs are running almost $300 billion over estimates and averaging 22 months behind delivery. As Congress took aim this week at this sorry performance, defense officials rushed to announce that they would be hiring 20,000 new managers and engineers during the next five years to ride herd over weapons development.
A measure heading to the White House for President Obama’s signature would create a new position at the Pentagon to track the biggest contracts, worth about 20 percent of the procurement budget. The evaluator — who would be appointed by the president and confirmed by the Senate — would have two new deputies, one tasked with tracking cost and the other performance.
The goal is to replace layers of unaccountable bureaucracy and create an early warning system to identify offenders; apply tighter management to the most vital contracts; and provide lawmakers, the secretary of defense and the president with the information they need to decide whether to terminate projects. The measure also soundly prods the Pentagon to thoroughly test prototypes before making any heavy investment.
This isn’t the first attempt to close Washington’s most gaping barn door after a stampede of taxpayers’ money. A generation ago, Congress promised much the same results, but little changed. The Pentagon brass, eager to protect favorite programs, and members of Congress, eager to protect district jobs, saw to that.
It is always easy to denounce waste, fraud and abuse in the abstract. And the new reform was adopted unanimously by the Senate and the House. If there is any hope of reining in Pentagon profligacy, President Obama and his secretary of defense, Robert Gates, will have to show real steel and eternal vigilance.
Mr. Obama should remember President Dwight Eisenhower’s caution, to “take nothing for granted” in facing up to the military-industrial complex.