Defense Secretary Dick Cheney announced cost-cutting management measures Thursday that he estimated will cut the military and civilian work force by 42,000 and save an estimated $39 billion over five years.
The streamlining measures would save an estimated $2.3 billion in fiscal 1991, which begins Oct. 1, he said."The improvements make it possible to trim the logistics and management work force of 580,000 civilian and military personnel by as many as 8,000 civilians and 8,000 military personnel" in fiscal year 1991, the Pentagon said in a statement accompanying Cheney's announcement.
By the end of fiscal 1995, it said, the work force will be reduced by a total of 18,000 civilians and 24,000 military personnel.
These reductions do not include the military force reductions, expected to amount to another 30,000 military personnel, connected with the fiscal 1991 budget, which President Bush will present to Congress Jan. 29.
"The changes in the nature of the threat around the world and the realities of the budget mean that our defense budget is going to be leaner in the years ahead," Cheney said.
"So every dollar that we can cut out of the cost of running the Pentagon is a dollar we don't have to cut from force structure, readiness or the quality of life for our men and women in uniform."
Deputy Defense Secretary Donald Atwood said the management changes would include better control of supplies by streamlining the individual services' maintenance activities and reducing the use of consultants and outside advisers.
It would also include the creation in each service of an acquisition corps of full-time experts who will report to top department officials, eliminating middle layers of bureaucracy and eliminate unnecessary paperwork.
Known as the Defense Management Review, the cost-cutting measures stem from Bush's order last year for Pentagon officials to reform the way the Defense Department conducts business.
Bush ordered the review last February in response to reports of waste, fraud and abuse in the military's massive weapons-buying or procurement programs and the perception of a bloated Pentagon workforce.
Cheney's report closely follows the 1986 recommendations of former President Reagan's commission on defense reform chaired by David Packard, known as the Packard Commission.
As an example of one of the changes under Cheney's plan, nearly all Contract Administration Services, currently divided among the three military departments and the Defense Logistics Agency, will be consolidated under the DLA.
"This action will result in a streamlined CAS organization that will promote uniform implementation of acquisition policies and regulations and will result in savings of both dollars and manpower," the Pentagon said.