Army lied about funding:
Pentagon locates money for
testing
remaining three ACWA technologies
(Excerpted from the May 2000 issue of CWWG's newsletter "Common Sense")
On July 27, 1999, a year to the day from
when contracts were awarded to test only three alternatives to
the Army's incineration technology for chemical weapons disposal,
the Pentagon announced it would direct the Army to test the remaining
three non-incineration technologies.
In July 1998 the Army's top official in the chemical weapons disposal
program, Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Army, Ted Prociv, claimed
funds were not available to demonstrate all six alternative technologies
that had been identified by the Congressionally-mandated Assembled
Chemical Weapons Assessment (ACWA) program. $25 million was needed
in 1998 to ensure demonstration of all six technologies. Prociv's
position, which he maintained in briefings to Congress and in
statements to the public and the press, forced the elimination
of three technologies from the testing process. "The money's
just not there," Prociv stated repeatedly.
However, a Pentagon Comptroller's July report painted a very different
picture. According to the report, "Information provided
by the Department of the Army and the Defense Finance and Accounting
Service indicated that as of February 1999, approximately $1 billion
of current and prior years funds were unexpended." The report
also states, "The Department has agreed to conduct evaluations
of the three additional alternative technologies. This will require
an additional $40 Million..."
The cost of doing three additional demonstrations has gone up
from $25 million it would have cost if they had been done a year
ago to $40 million. The increase is due to the fact that test
sites used for the previous demonstrations have to be geared back
up, support personnel re-assigned, and environmental documents
re-done. Taxpayers are paying a $15 million penalty for Prociv's
obsession with incineration.
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