Following the lead of private industry, we are taking a new approach to the procurement of readily available items such as medicine and food products. The Department will no longer buy huge stocks of medical supplies and store them at individual hospitals, clinics and government warehouses. We at DoD have finally recognized the value and power of competition , the driving force of the U.S. economy. Competition forces organizations to focus on customer needs, increase quality and reduce costs. American firms are global leaders in innovation, cost performance and technological developmention the art of competitive advantage and we are trying to tap into that leadership.
Competition now plays a vital role in our efforts to reform defense management.
Commercial-type activities, like building maintenance and equipment repair, will increasingly not be performed by DoD uniformed and civilian employees, but by outside contractors. We are introducing competition to the procurement of commercial support activities. By the end of fiscal year 2001, we will have opened up some 200,000 positions for competition from the private sector. These savings will be directed to higher priority programs, and especially to our modernization programs. During the 1980s, American private industry shed its unneeded infrastructure to stay competitive.