Trouble at the Pentagon

The Pentagon is in crisis: The war in Iraq is entering its fifth hot summer. And while U.S. troop casualties are down, the light at the end of the occupation tunnel is no closer and no brighter.

Headaches mount on the home front as well. The head of the Air Force was recently embarrassed and forced from the cockpit. Billions of dollars have been misplaced or misspent. Huge cost overruns bedevil weapons contractors. And, private contractors have formed a cubicle mercenary force, outnumbering uniformed personnel and federal employees in many DoD agencies.

The Government Accountability Office has issued a series of reports on these problems. While the watchdog agency sticks to the script of analytic bureaucratese, what they document is cumulatively damning to business as usual at the Pentagon.

Money Problems
The Pentagon has its work cut out for it. Keeping track of its more than half trillion dollar budget and the hundreds of billions more in war spending is no easy task. There is bound to be some slippage here and there. But 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. In a May report to the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, the Inspector General’s Office highlights $7.8 billion paid to contractors for everything from telephones to trucks without any support documentation—like a check for $5.6 million to an Iraqi contractor. For what? No one knows. Or the $32 million doled out to build a facility for the Iraqi military. Never built. Why not? No one knows.

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.

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. And they also have to keep an eye on war spending. At the beginning of June, Inspector General Claude Kicklighter went to Congress with hat in hand to ask for another $25 million for his department next year. He is also arguing for a 25% increase in staffing over the next seven years. The funds – comparable to just a few hours of the war in Iraq – are in the proposed 2009 defense authorization bill now before Congress.

Meanwhile, the GAO estimates that the Pentagon has $900 billion in planned spending on weapons systems over the next five years. While Congressional and Pentagon leaders point to the need to “reset” military forces worn out by years of warfighting, the lion’s share of this money is not going to repair equipment or replenish dwindling stocks of needed material. Rather, it is going to pay the ever-spiraling bill for high tech weapons systems still in the pipeline.

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.

Whose Pentagon?
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 looked at 21 different offices and found that private contractors outnumbered Department of Defense employees in more than half the locations. In some offices—like the engineering department of the Missile Defense Agency – they make up more than 80% of the work force. The GAO found that contractors are responsible for carrying out “a range of tasks, including studying alternative ways to acquire desired capabilities, developing contractor requirements and advising and assisting on source selection, budget, planning and award fee determination.” In its rebuttal to the GAO report, the DoD pointed out that most contractors are involved in the technical – rather than the policy – side of the work. Nevertheless, it is conceivable that an employee paid by L-3 Communications is sitting at a desk in the Pentagon and drafting the requirements that L-3 would need to fulfill to get another contract, and that an employee with SAIC is evaluating what sort of award fees should be granted to SAIC once they get another contract. Contract employees are also not subject to the federal laws and regulations designed to prevent personal conflicts of interest.

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.

Revolving Door: Spinning for Profit
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.

The GAO report asserts that “our results indicate that defense contractors may employ a substantial number of former DoD officials on assignments related to their former DoD agencies or direct responsibilities.”

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.

http://www.fpif.org/fpiftxt/5292

Wear And Tear

June 12, 2008:

The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan involve lots of driving, much more than military vehicles would get in peacetime. This means stuff wears out earlier, and has to be replaced. Thus this year, the U.S. Army is buying 127 Stryker wheeled armored vehicles, for about $7.9 million each. Trucks are taking a real beating, so 2,862 (FMTV (Family of Medium Tactical Vehicles) trucks were bought. Several models are involved (both 2.5 and 5 ton class), and average cost will be $290,000 each. The workhorse vehicle for the troops is the hummer (High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicles, or HMWVV), and 3,268 are on order, costing about $183,000 each.


Some of the heavier vehicles, like M-1 tanks, don't roll as much in Iraq any more, and are not worn down as much when they do. But the tanks do have one vulnerable (to wear and tear) component, and that's the engine. So 1,037 new engines are being bought, for about $180,000 each. These are jet engines, or gas turbines, and are rebuilt, as well as replaced. But eventually they wear out, and new ones are needed.

http://www.strategypage.com/htmw/htproc/articles/20080612.aspx

A billion here, a trillion there and the "appeasers" start whining.

I'm gonna write DOD on company stationary and just ask them for a big azz check. They're so screwed up the might just send it.

The GAO knows who is bankrupting America, good for them for stepping up.

The handling of that kind of cash invites theft, misappropriation and abuse. Maybe we should encourage more "watch dog", oversight and whistle-blower operatives/organizations.

Hang on. Things are going to get much better. I just found out that we have a Top Secret Weapon in the making. McCain will be our next President. Gates is a key player and knows what he is doing. I was ready to bet the house that Obama was going to be our next President. Man was I wrong.

quote:

Contract employees are also not subject to the federal laws and regulations designed to prevent personal conflicts of interest.

Wrong.

And while the budget and oversight problems listed certainly need to be addressed, the use of the term "cubicle mercenary" tells me all I need to know about the author.

Well as an employee of one of the bigger contracting/consulting firms out there and mentioned in the article above...I would love to know who is getting paid two to three times what their gg equivalent is making b/c it sure as heck is not me. Now the security bubbas down range might be making coin when compared to their military counterpart but they do so with no insurance in most cases and if they lose a limb...tough crap that is why they make what they make in salary.

quote:

Originally posted by Fin_atic:
Well as an employee of one of the bigger contracting/consulting firms out there and mentioned in the article above...I would love to know who is getting paid two to three times what their gg equivalent is making b/c it sure as heck is not me. Now the security bubbas down range might be making coin when compared to their military counterpart but they do so with no insurance in most cases and if they lose a limb...tough crap that is why they make what they make in salary.

As a fellow "cubicle mercenary" I have to agree. What the moronic author of that article fails to understand is that contract personnel are cheaper than having a military or government type do the same job. They don't have to train contractors, provide housing, medical, dental or any of the other services they provide active duty members, and they can fire a contractor with a memo.

Dang, and I was just thinking about stepping out and joining a contractor...... I might have to rethink my retirement/next job options.

Ok, Let's look beyond the fact that IHAWKER posted this without his own two cents. Lets just look at who has published this crap;



"FPIF provides timely analysis of U.S. foreign policy and international affairs and recommends policy alternatives. We believe U.S. security and world stability are best advanced through a commitment to peace, justice and environmental protection as well as economic, political, and social rights. We advocate that diplomatic solutions, global cooperation, and grassroots participation guide foreign policy."



So lets look at the political venue they are pushing;


"commitment to peace, justice and environmental protection as well as economic, political, and social rights."


Sounds great! Go to their website America is nothing but a bully.com


I love the fact that they are free to spew anything they want to! Hell, that is what makes America great! I love peace....would love world peace....but it ain't gonna happen, at least not in my lifetime!

So...What do ya do? My question to you IHAWKER...what are you going to do to make a difference?

My purpose in posting this was to generate conversation, and slowly but surely that is what it appears to be doing. I sometimes get tired of reading some of the mindless fluff that pops up from time to time therefore I try to counter that with something that may be more thought provoking or controversial. Just because I post something does not mean that I am in agreement or disagreement with what I have posted.

As for as what I am going to do to make a difference … I did quite a lot in just over 32 years on active duty, a lot of which you wouldn’t believe if I told you.

quote:

As for as what I am going to do to make a difference … I did quite a lot in just over 32 years on active duty, a lot of which you wouldn’t believe if I told you.

No...maybe I would believe! Just don't post crap and try to avoid. Be proud of your service...and stand up to the nonsense you post! I say nonsensence because I don't agree with you.....only reason!

quote:

Originally posted by IHAWKER:
My purpose in posting this was to generate conversation, and slowly but surely that is what it appears to be doing. I sometimes get tired of reading some of the mindless fluff that pops up from time to time therefore I try to counter that with something that may be more thought provoking or controversial. Just because I post something does not mean that I am in agreement or disagreement with what I have posted.

As for as what I am going to do to make a difference … I did quite a lot in just over 32 years on active duty, a lot of which you wouldn’t believe if I told you.

OOps sir, nope, I don't believe none of it!

quote:

Originally posted by SurfaceDog:

quote:

Originally posted by Fin_atic:
Well as an employee of one of the bigger contracting/consulting firms out there and mentioned in the article above...I would love to know who is getting paid two to three times what their gg equivalent is making b/c it sure as heck is not me. Now the security bubbas down range might be making coin when compared to their military counterpart but they do so with no insurance in most cases and if they lose a limb...tough crap that is why they make what they make in salary.

As a fellow "cubicle mercenary" I have to agree. What the moronic author of that article fails to understand is that contract personnel are cheaper than having a military or government type do the same job. They don't have to train contractors, provide housing, medical, dental or any of the other services they provide active duty members, and they can fire a contractor with a memo.

Cheaper?? have you been drinking? DRS pays it's IT guys 160 grand a year in SWA. Free meals free living quarters, medical (while deployed) and the use of recreation facilities.