Friday, December 17, 2010

In the US of A



There are those who have clear ideas on how to save the $100 billion that the Secretary of Defense says that he wants to save

Not only saving $100 billion or probably more, it would also increase capability
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Unfortunately he failed to associate the corrosive effects of the retired generals, influence of lobbyists and ear marking congressmen on the productivity of the US war machine.
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Here are some ideas that could usefully be adopted not only by the US but every other government with a war machine (Defense Department/ Industry)
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1 - US defense contractors were once run by people who knew how to make things.

Now, they are run by former government officials or retired military officers.

These people are experts at extorting contracts not at delivering product.

Make public, quarterly, the list of all contractors with cost over-runs or who are late on delivery or fell short of specification
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2 - Identify all contractor lobbyists post their payments and who they met with.

Ban the contractor employment of all former service members and government officials for a period no less than 5 years after retirement;
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3 - Obtain an Executive Order of the President to ignore all congressional earmarks
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4 - Pay a bounty of up to 15% of gross contract value to anyone reporting fraud and cinflicts of interest in procurement
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5 - Government officials and military officers engaged in enriching themselves, friends or family members shall be cashiered, imprisoned and lose their pensions unless they turn in their superiors
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6 - Flag officers shall be reduced in count by 1/3 to reflect the reduction in staff
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7 - All technology programs shall be reviewed by leading authorities in the real world so we stop purchasing out of date solutions
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8 - All software that can be purchased off the shelf shall be purchased off the shelf
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9 - All software developed internally shall be through contractors with no DoD affiliation and located at least 100 miles outside the Washington beltway
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10 - Medcom will be placed in receivership and fully audited as the amounts spent on medical care now exceed US$50B.
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11 - Hold officers and officials fully accountable for poor decisions including pay reductions, reductions in rank and firings.

No more we will give General so and so a chair to make three years to get a full pension.
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12 - All mentors (ex-Generals) should be fired immediately and compelled under oath to report the contracts they influenced and the conflicts they had.
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These suggestions were published in various minor US publications and unsurprisingly have not received much main media attention

Sad thing is these actions are possible theoretically anywhere, but politically possible no where!

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