Pentagon hides evidence revealing 125 bln USD in wasteful spending: media

The Pentagon has intentionally buried an internal report documenting the agency's 125 billion U.S. dollars worth of bureaucratic waste out of fears that the Congress might cut its budget, U.S. media revealed.

The 77-page report, issued in January 2015, was commissioned by the Defense Department leaders with the aim to cut military bureaucracy and reinvest any savings.

Its findings, uncovered by the Washington Post earlier this week, turned out to show far more waste than expected. It called on the Pentagon to carry out a series of reforms that would trim 125 billion dollars from its spending over the next five years.

The cost-saving measures included early retirements and limiting expensive contractors, but did not involve any layoffs.

"They're all complaining that they don't have any money," said Robert Stein, former chairman of the Defense Business Board, an advisory that carried out the study. "We proposed a way to save a ton of money."

However, some Pentagon leaders feared that the findings might undermine their claim that the military is short of money and give the Congress a reason to further slash the money directed to it.

Hence, they moved swiftly to kill the report. Secrecy restrictions were imposed on data making up the report to make sure nobody can replicate the findings.

In an interview with the Washington Post, Deputy Defense Secretary Robert Work said the saving plans laid out in the report were "unrealistic" as the authors did not understand how the Pentagon operates.

"We will never be as efficient as a commercial organization," he said, "We are the largest bureaucracy in the world." Endi