Cheney Reportedly Seeks Cuts in Pentagon Bureaucracy

Defense Secretary Dick Cheney, responding to pressures for better Pentagon management in the face of weapons procurement scandals, has proposed restructuring the U.S. military’s top management to eliminate layers of bureaucracy and tighten control over weapons buying, according to documents obtained by the Washington Post.

The 31-page defense management review, one of the major defense initiatives announced by President Bush during his first days in office, recommends streamlining the Pentagon’s massive acquisitions bureaucracy, eliminating numerous military and civilian positions and reducing the military’s reliance on costly outside consultants, according to a staff analysis of the report delivered to members of the House Armed Services Committee this week.

One of the most controversial recommendations of the report, which is not scheduled to be publicly released before July 10, could force some of the services to eliminate or consolidate large, powerful administrative commands to avoid duplicating the efforts of other agencies that would gain power under the restructuring, according to the analysis.

Another key recommendation would create a new Defense Department executive committee composed of the secretary, deputies for procurement and acquisition, service secretaries and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff to coordinate weapons-buying efforts.

The powerful new panel “should require senior Defense Department officials to work together as a team,” the report said, to cut the interservice rivalries of past administrations when top officials fought to circumvent the authority of others.

The congressional analysis praised some of the recommendations, but said: “There is a serious question whether the actions planned will really bring reform to the ponderous acquisition process.

“Like the Packard Commission before it, the Cheney review says all the right things,” said the report prepared by the staff of the House Armed Services Committee. “But it lacks enough specific, implementing directions to assure that the ‘cultural change’ that everyone agrees is needed will happen.”

Cheney’s report says 580,000 civilians and military personnel are employed in weapons acquisition for the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marines. Weapons acquisition accounts for $64 billion in the $305-billion 1990 Pentagon budget.

A Defense Department spokesman, who declined to discuss details of the report, said Friday the Cheney report is not final and is still under review by the White House.

“The report does contain very specific recommendations of things that need to be done to implement the report,” the spokesman said.