$204 Billion

— The Government Accountability Office reported Monday that’s how much the Pentagon obligated for “service contracts” in 2010. “DOD relies on contractors to perform functions as varied as professional and management support, information technology support, and weapon system and intelligence support,” the GAO said. The Pentagon, all told, agreed to spend about $367 billion on contracts that year, meaning most of their contracted spending went for services rather than weapons systems.

“While there are benefits to using contractors to perform services for the government,” the GAO adds, “our work has shown that reliance on contractors to support core missions can place the government at risk of becoming overly-reliant on contractors to perform closely associated with inherently governmental functions…” Apparently, the military and industrial pieces of the military-industrial complex are merging into one.

  • Share
  • Read Later