The Defense Department is ahead of schedule in its efforts to reduce its acquisition workforce by 25 percent by the end of fiscal 2000, but the cuts may not save Pentagon officials as much as they hope, a new General Accounting Office report has found.
Each version of the National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal years 1996 through 1998 has required a reduction in DoD's acquisition workforce due to decreasing budgets and acquisition reform initiatives. The laws required a reduction of a total of 30,000 jobs in in fiscal 1996 and 1997 and 25,000 additional cuts this year.
But DoD cut nearly 60,000 acquisition jobs in 1996 and 1997. This reduction alone was nearly two-thirds of the reduction of 95,000 personnel that DoD must achieve to reach its 25 percent target. The overall rate of cuts in Defense jobs during the same period was less than half of that achieved in the acquisition workforce, according to the report (Defense Acquisition Organizations: Status of Workforce Reductions NSIAD-98-161).
According to the Congressional Budget Office, the reductions in procurement personnel so far will save DoD $3.2 billion. GAO found, however, that the Defense Department's accounting systems are unable to directly track workforce reductions in acquisitions organizations to DoD budget accounts.
For example, the civilian payroll portion of DoD's operations and maintenance budget has been reduced by approximately $3.6 billion, but it is unclear how much of that decline is accounted for by acquisition workforce reductions.
GAO also concluded that such savings from procurement personnel reductions may not ever be fully realized due to other offsetting costs.
For example, potential savings from the cuts may be offset in part by contracting with private firms for some services previously performed by government personnel. Savings may also be offset by the costs of employee buyouts and additional overtime.
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