G.A.O. Report Points to Rise in Cost Overruns at Pentagon

[tpsbmam]

Source: NY Times

Inefficient Pentagon management led to cost increases for key weapons programs that often fell short of production goals last year, government auditors said Monday.

In its sixth annual report on selected weapons purchases, the auditors, with the Government Accountability Office, found that procurement costs came in 26 percent above original estimates for 72 major weapons programs in 2007. The office also found that many programs had been delayed or produced fewer weapons than initially planned.

The report attributed the problems to inefficient Pentagon practices, including changes in requirements after weapons development had started, turnover in program management and the use of contractors.

.....

Planned Pentagon investment in new weapons systems doubled to $1.6 trillion in 2007 from $790 billion in 2000, hitting its highest level in two decades, the report said. .

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/01/washington/01weapons.html?ref=us&pagewanted=print

[Magleetis]

1. 1.6 T on killing machines

while gas is $3.50 and millions go without health care. The US is self destructing.

[sinkingfeeling]

2. Excuse me, but according to the CBO, the US took in $2.4 trillion in revenue in 2007. So how can the

Pentagon be investing $1.6 trillion in a single year? Where does this 'investment' money come from? Where is it in the 'budget'?



http://www.cbo.gov/ftpdocs/81xx/doc8116/05-18-TaxRevenues.pdf

[peacetalksforall]

3. Grapes of Wrath - we are going to all be migrants . Including our soldier children.

Many of us will be guards for the rich. And Rice will turn Blackwater over to the No-Justice Dept who will announce all the new laws to contain us.

How much conterfeit money have we printed?

The first seven years of the century.

The screws are getting tighter.

Down. Down. Down.

We pretend not.

[tpsbmam]

4. Here's another longer front page, above the fold account from WaPo

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/03/31/AR2008033102789_pf.html

Government auditors issued a scathing review yesterday of dozens of the Pentagon's biggest weapons systems, saying ships, aircraft and satellites are billions of dollars over budget and years behind schedule.

The Government Accountability Office found that 95 major systems have exceeded their original budgets by a total of $295 billion, bringing their total cost to $1.6 trillion, and are delivered almost two years late on average. In addition, none of the systems that the GAO looked at had met all of the standards for best management practices during their development stages.

Auditors said the Defense Department showed few signs of improvement since the GAO began issuing its annual assessments of selected weapons systems six years ago. "It's not getting any better by any means," said Michael Sullivan, director of the GAO's acquisition and sourcing team. "It's taking longer and costing more."

......

The Pentagon has doubled the amount it has committed to new systems, from $790 billion in 2000 to $1.6 trillion last year, according to the 205-page GAO report. Total acquisition costs in 2007 for major defense programs increased 26 percent from first estimates. In 2000, 75 programs had cost increases totaling 6 percent. Development costs in 2007 for the systems rose 40 percent from initial projections, compared with 27 percent in 2000. Current programs are delivered 21 months late on average, five months later than in 2000.

"In most cases, programs also failed to deliver capabilities when promised -- often forcing war fighters to spend additional funds on maintaining" existing weapons systems, the report says.

.......

The GAO's Sullivan said the reasons for the cost overruns and delays are threefold: There are too many programs chasing too few dollars; technologies are often not mature enough to go into production; and it takes too long to design, develop and produce a system.

"They're asking for something that they're not sure can be built, given existing technologies, and that's risky," Sullivan said in an interview.

(more at link)

[bemildred]

5. "Planned Pentagon investment" means all future planned (not budgeted) expenses. nt

[Bigmack]

6. Repub "defense" contractors...

fattening up while they can. New sheriff coming to town next year, and times might be a little tighter for the makers of expensive shit that doesn't work.

[Mnemosyne]

7. No fucking way! Until they account for the $2.3 TRILLION "missing" on 9/10/01

they shouldn't get a penny.

Bastards.

[flashl]

8. You beat me to it.

And, pass an audit.

[Mnemosyne]

9. My fantasy,

a complete audit! :woohoo:

[Nitrogenica]

10. GAO Blasts Weapons Budget

Source: Washington Post

Government auditors issued a scathing review yesterday of dozens of the Pentagon's biggest weapons systems, saying ships, aircraft and satellites are billions of dollars over budget and years behind schedule.

The Government Accountability Office found that 95 major systems have exceeded their original budgets by a total of $295 billion, bringing their total cost to $1.6 trillion, and are delivered almost two years late on average. In addition, none of the systems that the GAO looked at had met all of the standards for best management practices during their development stages.

Auditors said the Defense Department showed few signs of improvement since the GAO began issuing its annual assessments of selected weapons systems six years ago. "It's not getting any better by any means," said Michael Sullivan, director of the GAO's acquisition and sourcing team. "It's taking longer and costing more."

Chris Isleib, a Pentagon spokesman, said in a written statement, "We'd like to look at what GAO has said, and then at the appropriate time make an informed comment."



Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/03/31/AR2008033102789_pf.html

---

I am not suprised.

[Sam Ervin jret]

11. Maybe they're all still shocked and awed?

Remember when people were expected to do a job for the price quoted and in the time allotted?

I do. I'm feeling very old, again. Thanks Pentagon for reminding me what part of the government I'd like to see smaller and holding bake sales to get their budgets met.

[creeksneakers2]

12. They start out wasting money

and end up wasting three times that amount.

[eib1]

13. We have a financial crisis

which threatens to be about the size of the Great Depression, and they're off building and buying bombs!

[ladywnch]

14. no, they're out there buying DEVELOPMENT of bombs......they still don't

having anything to show for what they've spent.......this is like the Bradley Fighting Vehicle....check out the movie Pentagon Wars. It will give you a very good idea of what goes on in the defense contracting world. I saw it when I was working for Lockheed........it all became very clear to me. BTW, it IS based on a true story.

[whistle]

15. All part of the industrial/military/government corruption complex

[darue]

16. well the whole system is being run by the contractors what the hell do they expect?

we don't even have the expertise in the military to run these procurement programs anymore, they actually contract out even for that!

[Purveyor]

17. Pentagon's Weapon Spending Surges To $1.6 Trillion In 2007

Source: Xinhua

WASHINGTON, April 1 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. Defense Department's spending on weapon systems has surged to 1.6 trillion dollars in 2007, doubling from 790 billion dollars in 2000, said a congressional report released on Tuesday.

According to the report by the Government Accountability Office(GAO), the acquisition costs were 26 percent higher than the original estimates in 2007, and the spending on research and development were 40 percent over the budget.

Despite the higher-than-budget cost, about 72 programs were still falling behind schedule by averagely 21 months, including fighter jets, combat ships and satellites, the sixth annual report on the Pentagon's weapon programs.

However, the Defense Department, whose personnel and budgets have been strained by the Iraq war and Afghanistan war, still plans to invest about 900 million dollars over the next five years in weapon systems' development and procurement, it added.

Gene Dodaro, the GAO's acting comptroller general, accused the defense budgets "spent inefficiently in developing and procuring weapon systems" of compromising "many other internal and external budget priorities."



Read more: http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2008-04/02/content_7901086.htm

[saigon68]

18. Disgusting

Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children. The cost of one modern heavy bomber is this: a modern brick school in more than 30 cities. It is two electric power plants, each serving a town of 60,000 population. It is two fine, fully equipped hospitals. It is some fifty miles of concrete pavement. We pay for a single fighter plane with a half million bushels of wheat. We pay for a single destroyer with new homes that could have housed more than 8,000 people. This is, I repeat, the best way of life to be found on the road the world has been taking. This is not a way of life at all, in any true sense. Under the cloud of threatening war, it is humanity hanging from a cross of iron. <...> Is there no other way the world may live? -Dwight David Eisenhower, "The Chance for Peace," speech given to the American Society of Newspaper Editors, Apr. 16, 1953.

[babydollhead]

20. excellent expression of TRUTH

I am so sick of the greedy war loving sickness that has infected our government and nation. PEACE!!!

[tama]

26. What happened?

Since Nobel Laureate Jimmy Carter there has been no US leader that at least talked (in practice also Jimmy murdered his fair share) peace, only more or less insane warmongers. TV-addicted generations getting the leaders they deserve?

[lonestarnot]

19. War profiteers are making out with big oil.

Just ask Judge Fuller, 11th Circuit District Ct.

[2QT2BSTR8]

21. And the chimp gets a new helicopter as part of this budget as well...

Absolutely disgusting!

[SpiralHawk]

22. "Sneer." - Dickie "5 Military Deferments" War-Profiteer Cheney & republicon cronies

[stellanoir]

23. There ARE. . .

"Lives in the Balance."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jFowNFvmUxw

[endarkenment]

24. And our masters bark like rabid baboons at the Chinese spending

a fraction of that number.

[Bonobo]

25. I'm sick and tired of them stealing from my children! Fuckers!

Meanwhile schools, roads, bridges, health-coverage, social-security go unfunded.

In other times, blood would be spilled for this.

[closeupready]

27. We can NOT AFFORD to continue this outrageous spending!!

And WHO are we defending against???

[petepillow]

28. should someone "mis-appropriate" just 1% and they're in the

Forbes 100. Funnel funnel funnel in the name of defense. I call it: The National Defense Funnel.

[vinylsolution]

29. The War Machine is on welfare

So are McCain, Obama or Hillary going to do anything about this? Don't hold your breath, folks....

McKinney/Nader '08!

[McCamy Taylor]

30. How much went to GE to buy NBC so they would shill for John McCain?

All those "mavericks" and "straight shooters" that I document in my journals could not have come cheap.

[Earth_First]

31. SHUT IT DOWN!

DEMOCRATS IN CONGRESS: QUIT FUNDING IT!

[kimmylavin]

32. K&R

Disgusting.

[Hulk]

33. We are #1, We are #1, We are #1.....

Yes sir, that's what we make. Bombs, fighter jets, humvees, flack jackets, and lots, lots more. Without a good old defense budget to swallow up all this shit, we'd be making NOTHING.

This country has it's head firmly up it's ass. We make NOTHING in this country. Whirlpool, RCA, Ford, textiles, steel...you name it. We make it ALL overseas now...except of course, munitions. We're still making that here, but it won't be long before that goes off shore too, and then we'll make even more than nothing here at home.

We haven't been #1 since the days of Ike. Pathetic corporate greed and deregulation. No protection tarrifs, and now jobs kept at home. Go profit makers. Drive those humvees and suck up that $4 a gallon gasoline so your stocks and 401K's can grow. Idiots!

Shame on us.

[Supersedeas]

34. nothing to see here -- the Media has a script (the surge is a success, the surge is a success)