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US Protection Secretary Pete Hegseth axed $5.1 billion in IT and consulting contracts.
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This consists of contracts with firms like Accenture and Deloitte.
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He mentioned the terminations “symbolize $5.1 billion in wasteful spending” on the DOD.
The US’s protection secretary, Pete Hegseth, simply ordered the termination of IT and consulting contracts with firms like Accenture and Deloitte, calling it “wasteful spending.”
In a Division of Protection memo, Hegseth mentioned he would minimize a Protection Well being Company contract “for consulting companies from Accenture, Deloitte, Booz Allen, and different companies that may be carried out by our civilian workforce.”
Additionally on the chopping block is the Air Drive’s contract with Accenture to “re-sell third-party Enterprise Cloud IT Companies,” which Hegseth says the federal government can “already fulfill instantly with current procurement assets.”
Within the memo, Hegseth additionally mentioned he was terminating 11 different contracts for “consulting companies” that help “non-essential” actions, like Range, Fairness and Inclusion (DEI), local weather issues, and the Pentagon’s COVID-19 response.
Hegseth mentioned the terminations “symbolize $5.1 billion in wasteful spending” on the DOD and would lead to practically $4 billion in financial savings.
The financial savings can be reallocated, Hegseth mentioned, to serve “vital priorities to Revive the Warrior Ethos, Rebuild the Army, and Reestablish Deterrence.”
He didn’t specify in his memo which Pentagon tasks this cash would go to.
In response to a request for remark, the DOD directed Enterprise Insider to an X video of Hegseth speaking in regards to the terminations.
“By the best way, we want this cash to spend on higher healthcare for our warfighters and their households, as an alternative of $500 an hour enterprise course of advisor. That is a number of consulting,” Hegseth mentioned within the video.
Hegseth additionally expressed his gratitude to Elon Musk’s cost-cutting outfit, the Department of Government of Efficiency. DOGE has been slashing federal spending throughout numerous businesses, whether or not it’s by laying off thousands of federal workers or shuttering foreign aid programs.
“So we wish to thank our pals at DOGE. We wish to thank all the oldsters right here which have helped us unpack this, reveal it, and we’re excited to make these cuts on behalf of you, the taxpayer and the warfighters on the Division,” Hegseth mentioned in his X video.
The Tesla and SpaceX CEO referenced the Defense Department’s $841 billion budget in an op-ed he wrote with Vivek Ramaswamy for The Wall Avenue Journal in November. Ramaswamy, who was co-leader of DOGE on the time, left DOGE in January.
“The Pentagon lately failed its seventh consecutive audit, suggesting that the company’s management has little concept how its annual finances of greater than $800 billion is spent,” the pair wrote.
Final month, Hegseth introduced that the Protection Division was terminating over $580 million in applications, contracts, and grants that DOGE had recognized as wasteful spending.
Representatives for Accenture, Deloitte, and Booz Allen didn’t instantly reply to requests for remark from BI.
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