The efficiency initiatives include a freeze at fiscal 2010 levels on the number of civilian senior executives, general and flag officer and PAS positions, and the department will begin assessing the number and locations of senior positions and the associated overhead and related expenses.
Gates directed the consolidation of IT infrastructure facilities, and a review of the thousands of reports the department generates with the goal to eliminate many of them.
Similar reviews will be carried out on the 65 boards and commissions funded by the OSD, and for all the department’s intelligence missions, organizations, relationships, and contracts, accompanied by an immediate 10 percent reduction in funding for advisory and assistance contractors in those areas as well as a freeze on senior executive positions in defense intelligence organizations.
The Pentagon will also eliminate an organization dealing with enterprise IT and hardware issues, and the Business Transformation Agency, whose responsibilities would be shifted to the deputy chief management officer, and Gates recommended closing the Joint Forces Command, which he said "has created an unneeded extra layer and step in the force management process."
Gates did not specify how many civilian employees or contractors would lose their jobs as a result of those three actions, though surely some will.
Gates also said a task force has been assembled to see the initiatives through.
