Pentagon's revolving door

As Congress prepares to consider the annual Department of Defense authorization bill and other military spending legislation totaling more than $700 billion, the need for more aggressive scrutiny is abundantly clear.  At a time when we have a $9.3 trillion national debt and large unmet social needs, oversight of these enormous and ever-increasing sums has failed to keep up. 

The Pentagon’s procurement and budgeting processes are rife with problems.  For example, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) has identified $295 billion in cost overruns on 72 major weapons systems, even as the Pentagon can’t balance its books or keep track of its vast inventory. These problems can lead to bizarre results, such as the fact that the Pentagon has hundreds of millions of dollars in spare parts now on order that are already marked for disposal. Despite huge cost overruns, major contractors have received $8 billion in performance bonuses that have been paid out regardless of the results of their work.  These abuses of the public trust – and the public purse – are simply unacceptable. 

These are complex problems that will require multi-faceted solutions. A good place to start would be by slowing down the “revolving door” that allows high level Pentagon bureaucrats and military officers to go to work for major defense contractors....

http://aiss.enews.senate.gov/t/41644/3273281/1165/0/