Evening star., 1952-09-07
Lovef Order Launches
Military on Road 10
Centralized Buying
By John A. Giles


By John A. Giles
The armed forces yesterday
moved a step nearer centralized
procurement system which its
advocates claim would save the
taxpayers billions Of dollars.
Secretary of Defense Lovett
issued the first of a series of di-
receives designed to eliminate
eventually some Of the competitive
buying practices which have sur
vived five years of "unification" Of
the armed services. The orders are
effective tomorrow.
Mr.. Lovett ordered that one serv-
ice should do the buying for ALI
wherever a met advantage" to the
Defense Department as a whole
resulted. However, the order prob
ably will not still Congressional
criticism of competitive military
buying which is defended at the
Pentagon.
No Expansion of Facilities.
The Secretary also decreed
there be no further expansion of
supply facilities without his spe-
cif1c approval. Chairman Bonnerl
claimed this is a victory in his
House watchdog subcommittee'sI
year-old fight to prevent the Airl
Force from establishing its ownl
separate supply system for COM
monty used items.
In the final days of the last
session of Congress, Senator
O'Mahoney, Democrat, of Wyo-
ming, inserted rider to the Mill
tary Appropriations Act directing
the Defense Secretary to act to
bring about IAN efficient, eco
nomical and practical" supply op-
Grafton. No funds were to be spent
for purchasing, warehousing. dis
tribution, etc., except under the
defense chiefs regulations. It was
under this law that MIR. Lovett
acted.
One Defense Department official
said it would take some time to
get the program into operation. He
said some of the services have
been building their own supply
systems for more than a century
but lit shouldn't take that long to
change this now."
Single Catalogue Ordered.
Among the things the new di-
rective orders are these:
/. vigorously" expedite a single
catalog of commonly used equip
ment. Congressional advocates
have claimed billions could be
saved by this program alone.
2. Develop and use single spec
ifications and reduce the number
Of sizes, kinds and types of gen.
orally similar items. There have
been instances of each service !,
buying something just a little diff .
ferent, such as Office desks only a
few inches different in size.
3. Stop the squirrel-like instinct
Of each service to hoard supplies.
The order stated, "Stock levels
shall be established and main
tained at the lowest practicable
level" and identical with those of
the other services.
4. Set up a check system in
each service to scrutinize the de-
mands made by it's own supply
planners. Review boards directly
responsible to the civilian secre-
taries will be named. This will !
eliminate unusually heavy orders
by a service which might upset
a whole industry.
Joint Use Of Facilities. |,
5. Use Jointly facilities such as /
warehouses, repair shops, bakeries
and laundries. The general prac-I
tice has been for each service to
build and maintain it's own IA
cility even though another might
have an identical installation
nearby. No new facility of this
nature will be built without the
Defense Secretary's approval. Ex-
ception was made for combat
areas, such as Korea.
6. Encourage private industry
to finance plant expansion instead
of using Government funds. "Gov-
ernment expansion of facilities
will be undertaken only after con-
Sideration of available capacity
of privately-owned and Govern
ment-owned or operated facilities
and when indicated by screened
mobilization needs" Mr.. Lovett
stated. Plant expansions, such as
for aircraft and engines, have
used Government funds in many
instances. A spokesman said the
new plan to put more Of the ex-
pense on private industry should
have substantial bearing on fu-
ture military budgets.
z. Step up utilization of ma
chine tools in reserve instead of
buying additional supplies.
Personal Training Cited.
8. When the military forces have
been fully outf1tted with modern
arms and equipment maximum
feasible reliance will be placed on
continuing expansible production
rather than on the accumulation Of
reserve stocks"
8. Recruit and train competent
military and civilian supply per-
Sonnel.
10. Maintain one single supply
and inventory control point for
each specified category of items in
each service. This may eventually
bring an end to separate buying /
and storing by the Army's seven
technical services Of common use
items.
The Bonner subcommittee re-
ported last year it had uncovered
a Pentagon directive authorizing
a separate Air Force supply sys-