The Simple Question the Pentagon Can’t Answer—Unless You Have $660 Million

How many widgets does the Defense Department have? Don’t ask.

http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/politics/2016/03/the_simple_question_the_pentagon_can_t_answer_unless_you_have_660_million.html

Quote :

"The widget that was being asked about has a narrow purpose: It’s basically a portable power station that looks like a small, plastic toolbox. Dubbed the HotPlug, it was invented to allow government investigators to transfer suspects’ computers to their laboratories for forensic analysis, without first shutting the computers down. And so an Oregon-based software developer, Martin Peck, who worries about privacy issues and government secrecy, in July 2015 sent the Defense Department a Freedom of Information Act request, asking how many such devices it had in its possession. Answering this simple question, the Pentagon said, would take the department—hold your breath now—15 million labor hours. Doing so would cost—no, don’t breathe yet—$660 million, the Pentagon said."

Quote :

"A 1990 law requires federal agencies to pass an annual audit, which requires among other things that they be able to account for all their possessions. But the Pentagon has never complied—it is the sole outlier, responsible for roughly half of all federal discretionary spending—and its deadline for passing such an audit keeps extending."

Why is the DOD above being audited? Since they are such a large amount of our expense they should be even more accountable

[Edited on March 21, 2016 at 3:23 PM. Reason : .]

3/21/2016 3:23:12 PM

Why was this thread locked earlier?

3/21/2016 4:36:36 PM

bc it was my thread and I EMCE'd up pretty badly.

[Edited on March 21, 2016 at 4:39 PM. Reason : Guth did a better job here.]

3/21/2016 4:37:57 PM

Smh

3/21/2016 5:01:00 PM

acronym credibility watch:

you capitalized the "O" in DoD

-1 credibility

3/22/2016 10:21:32 PM

http://thehill.com/policy/cybersecurity/274105-chinese-national-pleads-guilty-to-dod-hacking-conspiracy

3/25/2016 3:43:10 PM