3 minutes agoTrump: Financial control by Elon Mousk will detect Pentagon abuses
Periskopi(a year ago)
(a year ago)United States President Donald Trump said he expects Elon Musk to find unnecessary spending of billions of dollars and abuses at the Pentagon, within a financial check that will be directed by the American entrepreneur “to say, perhaps 24 hours later, to go check the Department of Education. More [...]
I'll tell him soon, maybe in 24 hours, to go check on the Department of Education. Then we'll have the army on our guard. Let's go to the military, let's do a financial check on the army”, Mr. Trump said in an interview with journalist Brett Bayer of Fox News, a part of which was broadcast Sunday morning.
“We will find billions, hundreds of millions of dollars unnecessary spending and abuse”, Mr. Trump said of the largest federal department.
The Pentagon has a budget of nearly $1 trillion a year. In December, then the president Joe Biden signed a bill authorising $895 billion in defence costs for the fiscal year ending on September 30th.
Mr. Musk, of whom the White House says he is a special government employee, has been commissioned by Mr. Trump to lead an attempt to shrink US federal personnel.
As part of this initiative, Mr. Musk's assistants have requested access to confidential information in computer systems in various government agencies.
Critics say that efforts are likely in conflict with the law, risk exposure to classified information, and in practice are disrupting entire agencies without the approval of Congress.
National Security Adviser Mike Waltz suggested in an interview Sunday that Pentagon shipbuilding processes could be of particular interest to the Government Efficiency Department.
Everything there seems to cost a lot, takes a lot of time, and has little shipments to the soldiers. We need business leaders to get in there and reform the purchase process at Pentagon”, Mr. Waltz said in an interview for “Meet the Press” on the NBC network.
There are many things that need to be seen in the shipbuilding process, it's a total mess”, Mr. Waltz added.
Leaders from all over the political spectrum have long criticised losses and inefficiency at the Pentagon. But civil Democrats and trade unions say the Government Efficiency Department, led by Mr. Musk, lacks expertise to restructure the Pentagon and their efforts risk exposing secret programmes.
Mr. Musk's companies also have large contracts with the Pentagon, which has raised significant concerns about the conflict of interest. / VOA/
