The Nation - News from Dec. 4, 1985

Overly complex Pentagon purchasing procedures, not just greedy defense contractors, are to blame for the $600 ashtrays and $400 hammers billed to taxpayers, the head of a federal cost-cutting commission said. J. Peter Grace, chairman of W. R. Grace & Co. and head of the President’s Private Sector Survey on Cost Control, testified before a special House Armed Services panel that is studying how the cost-cutting recommendations of the commission affect military procurement. Grace said the Pentagon procurement system was much to blame for taxpayer losses.