Pentagon Paper Rules

While your article was right on target, your readers should not conclude that such federal government contract problems are limited only to the Department of Defense and the Pentagon. The same problems exist with procurements made by every department and agency of the federal government. We just have more visibility of defense procurements because of the dollar amounts involved.

Your readers should also realize that Congress, with its penchant for passing laws called “procurement reform legislation,” is part of the problem and not part of the solution.

Just this decade we have had well-publicized studies involving improvement of the government procurement process by the Grace Commission (which also looked into other areas) and the so-called Blue Ribbon Packard Commission (focused on defense procurement and organization), whose recommendations have largely been ignored by both Congress and the bureaucracy.

The DOD should not be singled out for blame; many parts of our government have earned such credit.

CHARLES M. (CHUCK)

CULVER

Northridge