The Department of Defense will continue to devote careful attention to the evaluation of all costs before reaching decisions on the relocation of troop units and other activities.

REALISTIC

ESTIMATES
ESTIMATES

OF MINOR CONSTRUCTION

PROJECTS (Recommendation No. 6):

The committee recommends that the Secretary of the Army review the procedures involved in the approval of minor construction projects to assure that the responsible officials do not approve such projects which are proposed on the basis of unrealistically low estimated costs. For example, when estimates are cut down to one-half or one-third of earlier estimates for the same projects, it should be obvious that the projects will be in difficulty from the time they are started.

RESULTS. The procedures involved were reviewed by the Secretary of the Army, a revised minor construction policy was adopted along with revised cost accounting procedures, and these were contained in new Army regulations AR-415-35 and AR-37-115.

JOINT DEFENSE-CIVIL SERVICE REVIEW OF REPRIMAND PROCEDURE (Recommendation No. 7):

The committee recommends that the Secretary of Defense and the Civil Service Commission jointly review the manner in which reprimands are issued and recorded, and the effect given them, with respect to civilian employees and to military officers with a view to eliminating or minimizing the inequities found in the Sharpe case.

RESULTS.-The Deputy Secretary of Defense advised that the review requested had been made and that insofar as it is practicable the current regulations of the military departments provide substantially the same treatment of military officials and civilian employees in the matter of reprimands. The record of a punitive reprimand is permanent and is maintained in the officer's personnel records at the department level. Civilian reprimands are maintained as permanent records by the Civil Service Commission. He further advised:

An administrative reprimand or admonition may be issued to a military officer as a corrective measure pursuant to paragraph 128c of the Manual for Courts-martial. The record of an administrative reprimand is of transitory nature and is destroyed after serving its purpose. Army civilian personnel regulations since December 1962 have provided for issuance of a written temporary admonition to civilian employees when the circumstances of the case indicate that a permanent reprimand is not warranted. The record of the admonition is transitory and can be retained in the recipient's file not to exceed 2 years.

In the Sharpe case, the statute of limitations precluded imposition of a punitive reprimand on the military officers, so that the commander's only reasonable recourse was to issue them administrative reprimands. The only available action which the commander could take against the civilian employee offenders at that time was to issue to each an official letter of reprimand, which he did. The result, of course, was that for substantially the same misconduct the military offenders received "temporary" reprimands and the civilian offenders "permanent" reprimands. Had the December 1962 change in civilian personnel regulations been in effect, the commander could have accorded the offenders substantially equal treatment. The Secretary of the Army has directed that the letters of reprimand issued to the four civilian employees at Sharpe General Depot be removed from their files and destroyed. effect is the same as if they had received only "temporary" reprimands and thus the inequity has been corrected.

The

Although current regulations have eliminated insofar as practicable the distinction that existed in the Sharpe case, equitable treatment of the two categories of personnel will not be achieved automatically. Commanders and supervisors must exercise sound judgment, fairness, and discretion in administering regulations. In order to emphasize the importance of this precept of management, the Secretary of each military department has been requested to initiate such measures as may be necessary to insure that commanders at every echelon place proper and continuing emphasis on achieving and maintaining substantial equity in administering regulations governing discipline of military officers and civilian employees.

PRESERVATION OF TELEPHONE RECORDS (Recommendation No. 8):

The committee recommends that the Department of Defense review the adequacy of its practices concerning the preparation and preservation of documentary records of official telephone conversations, with a view toward minimizing gaps in the administrative history of significant decisions and actions.

RESULTS. The amended DOD Directive 7040.2 contained the following guidance:

The project files will represent a complete historical record of the project from inception to completion. Correspondence and other documentation pertinent to the project will be incorporated in the project files at all appropriate levels. This will include memorandums for record pertaining to decisions resulting from discussions, meetings, and telephone conversations.

INVENTORIES OF EXISTING ASSETS (Recommendation No. 9):

With respect to the excessive construction at the Marine Air Station at Beaufort, S.C., the committee recommends that in connection with the implementation of the Navy Department's new shore facilities planning system, care should be taken to insure that inventories of existing assets are kept current and accurate and that they are taken into account each time the programing of facilities for an installation is reviewed.

RESULTS.-The committee was advised by the Department of the Navy as follows:

The following action has been taken to preclude excessive construction in the future. Navy now has in effect a regularized procedure which has, among other goals, the purpose of avoiding situations of the type which the committee revealed at the Marine Air Station, Beaufort, S.C. The procedure is set out in Navy's shore facility planning and programing system introduced in April 1960, and updated by issuance of OPNAV instruction 11010. ID dated 30 July 1962; this provides a definite step-by-step procedure whereby latest inventories of existing usable assets are taken into consideration in determining facility deficiencies and excesses reported for programing review. A copy of this instruction is enclosed herewith.

The new system first determines basic facilities requirements for each activity; then records all available facilities by means of an engineering evaluation on location; and by comparing the requirements with the available facilities, establishes the need for new construction. The results of the engineering survey are compared with plant record cards and with the inventory of military real property in order to exclude any possibility of emission of existing facilities from evaluation. Any change in an activity's mission initiates a reevaluation of its basic facilities requirements by the activity's sponsor bureau, which immediately stops the processing of all affected construction projects. If a construction project is in an advanced stage at the time of change in mission, the activity's commanding officer is charged with responsibility to stop the project and inform his sponsor bureau.

The Department of the Navy is taking continuous action to accelerate the implementation of this system. The collection of the necessary planning data has now progressed to a point where the evaluation and review of fiscal year 1967 military construction projects for major activities can be conducted in accordance with this system. The Navy Inspector General will conduct on-site inspections of the effectiveness of the Navy's shore facilities planning and programing procedures at activity level.

MILITARY OPERATIONS SUBCOMMITTEE

[H. Rept. No. 599, 88th Cong., 1st sess.]

MILITARY AIR TRANSPORTATION-1963

Tenth Report by the Committee on Government Operations (Submitted to the Speaker July 17, 1963)

This report examines the history and development of efforts to improve military air transportation policy and procedures, with particular reference to the procurement of airlift from civil carriers to support military requirements. It also reviews the development of the organization and present capacity of the Military Air Transport Service and its projected plans and policies as they affect the procurement of airlift services. It recognizes that MATS has a vital role and that military needs must be filled by modern jet transport aircraft. However, it urges that the planning and execution of airlift procurement not only be performed in such a way that the Department of Defense can procure the desired services when they are needed, but also so that the industry will not be completely unbalanced or upset by variations in this procurement.

The report also urges coordinated attention by the Department of Defense, the Civil Aeronautics Board, and the Federal Aviation Agency to assure not only that Government can procure its needs, but that the regulation of civil carriers will not be working at cross purposes with procurement policies. While both the military air fleet and the civil air carrier fleet will soon be composed of highcapacity jet aircraft, the inventory of older lower capacity aircraft is an industry problem which must be taken into account in both regulatory and procurement policies.

The report is based on committee hearings, studies, and reports beginning in 1958, on extensive staff investigations, and on public hearings held on April 24, 25, and 30, 1963.

The report includes eight committee recommendations. These urge that MATS continue to fill "hard core" military requirements with its own fleet and to plan for continued civil air carrier participation, possibly with greater participation in channel cargo traffic. Although the committee has previously urged longer term contracts for civil air carriage, the report points out that for certain purposes, consideration also must be given to flexibility, for example, in procurement of short-term hauls and in insuring sufficient competition by means of a broad contractor base among the civil air carriers. As in prior reports, the committee urges consideration by MATS and by the CAB of the needs of carriers which have heavily committed themselves in support of the modernization policies urged by the Government. At the same time, the report recommends that the CAB consider the advisability of lower minimum rates for military

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airlift in view of the greater economies being experienced by carriers in the operation of the newer and higher capacity aircraft.

RESULTS. The committee's continuing surveillance of the subject matter has stimulated modernization of air fleets in both military and civil areas, stabilized the whole procurement setup for military airlift, and improved procurement procedures and planning for emergency requirements. The report also brings together many facts and facets of military air transportation and is a useful reference and background document for Members of Congress and the interested public.

The Department of Defense agreed to virtually all of the committee's recommendations, and indicated that it was proceeding with appropriate action under each recommendation.

RECOMMENDATIONS

PLANS FOR "HARD CORE" AND CIVIL CARRIER ROLES (Recommendation No. 1):

MATS should continue to emphasize its hard-core role and to plan for continued substantial participation by civil carriers in military airlift business within its purview.

RESULTS. The Military Air Transport Service, by act of Congress, has been renamed the Military Airlift Command to emphasize its important military support functions. The Military Airlift Command has strongly emphasized its hard-core role, particularly in conjunction with plans in support of the Strike Command. Continued substantial participation by civil carriers in military airlift has been evident in fiscal years 1965 and 1966 procurements. For several years, acting on the basis of a prior recommendation by our committee, the Appropriations Committee has designated in appropriation acts dollar amounts which were to be available only for procurement of commercial transportation service from air carriers participating in the Civil Reserve Air Fleet. In the fiscal year 1966 act the designated amount was increased from $80 million to $100 million. In fiscal year 1965, actual expenditures for commercial augmentation airlift were $231.3 million.

SHARE IN CHANNEL TRAFFIC (Recommendation No. 2):

Consideration should be given to expanding the civil carrier share of MATS channel cargo traffic.

RESULTS. Since the issuance of the committee report, the percentage of total channel traffic carried by commercial carriers has increased substantially. The Military Airlift Command has participated in an increased number of military exercises and has placed additional emphasis on airlifting cargo peculiar to the capabilities of military aircraft.

In addition, the Military Airlift Command has been faced with two continuing factors increased capacity in new Department of Defense aircraft being delivered, such as the C-130 and C-141 aircraft, and