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Losing That War, Too

On 9/10/01, Donald Rumsfeld called a news conference to discuss his number one priority as defense secretary: he declared “war on the Pentagon bureaucracy.” A few excerpts from that speech:

A new GAO report shows that Rumsfeld’s effort has not succeeded. The report indicates that, three years after Rumsfeld’s speech, the Pentagon is the U.S. department most prone to fraud, waste, abuse and mismanagement, “raising concerns about the effectiveness of many of its programs.” The Department of Defense accounts for eight of the 25 federal programs, functions or offices that appear on the GAO’s 2005 “high-risk” list.

Areas of concern include financial and contract management, the personnel security clearance program, management of military bases and other infrastructure, and modernization of computer systems, the report found.

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