Obama Chooses Carter for 'Transparency' Board
Posted: Fri Jul 29, 2011 2:34 pmObama Chooses Carter for 'Transparency' Board
By Lisa Daniel
American Forces Press Service
WASHINGTON, July 29, 2011 - A senior Defense Department official who has a lead role in Pentagon cost-saving and efficiency efforts has been named to a new White House board to cut waste in federal spending.
President Barack Obama yesterday appointed Ashton B. Carter, undersecretary of defense for acquisition, technology and logistics, to the 11-member Government Accountability and Transparency Board, a body he created last month as part of the administration's "Campaign to Cut Waste."
Obama, in announcing the board's creation, said its mission will be to "hunt down and eliminate misspent tax dollars in every agency and department across the federal government."
In his June 13 executive order to create the board, Obama said it will build on two years of efforts by the Recovery, Accountability and Transparency Board to save taxpayer dollars by cutting wasteful spending and increasing efficiency in government operations. That has been done, he said, "by curbing uncontrolled growth in contract spending, terminating poorly performing information technology projects, ... and opening government up to the public to increase accountability and accelerate innovation."
Carter, since taking the undersecretary position in April 2009, has championed efforts find cost efficiencies in the Pentagon budget, particularly in acquisitions, and to redirect savings to support warfighters and speed up the fielding of equipment and other needs to deployed troops.
Carter was named to the board, which held its first meeting yesterday, along with 10 other senior federal officials.
"With our nation's top watchdogs at the helm, we will deliver the kind of transparency and accountability for federal spending that the public deserves and expects," Vice President Joe Biden, who will preside over the board, said in a statement released today.
The board is to issue a report by the end of this year recommending a broad range of strategies to make government spending more transparent, to improve the use of technology to prevent fraud, and "offer a comprehensive vision for the management of federal spending that will fundamentally change how government works," according to a White House news release.
By Lisa Daniel
American Forces Press Service
WASHINGTON, July 29, 2011 - A senior Defense Department official who has a lead role in Pentagon cost-saving and efficiency efforts has been named to a new White House board to cut waste in federal spending.
President Barack Obama yesterday appointed Ashton B. Carter, undersecretary of defense for acquisition, technology and logistics, to the 11-member Government Accountability and Transparency Board, a body he created last month as part of the administration's "Campaign to Cut Waste."
Obama, in announcing the board's creation, said its mission will be to "hunt down and eliminate misspent tax dollars in every agency and department across the federal government."
In his June 13 executive order to create the board, Obama said it will build on two years of efforts by the Recovery, Accountability and Transparency Board to save taxpayer dollars by cutting wasteful spending and increasing efficiency in government operations. That has been done, he said, "by curbing uncontrolled growth in contract spending, terminating poorly performing information technology projects, ... and opening government up to the public to increase accountability and accelerate innovation."
Carter, since taking the undersecretary position in April 2009, has championed efforts find cost efficiencies in the Pentagon budget, particularly in acquisitions, and to redirect savings to support warfighters and speed up the fielding of equipment and other needs to deployed troops.
Carter was named to the board, which held its first meeting yesterday, along with 10 other senior federal officials.
"With our nation's top watchdogs at the helm, we will deliver the kind of transparency and accountability for federal spending that the public deserves and expects," Vice President Joe Biden, who will preside over the board, said in a statement released today.
The board is to issue a report by the end of this year recommending a broad range of strategies to make government spending more transparent, to improve the use of technology to prevent fraud, and "offer a comprehensive vision for the management of federal spending that will fundamentally change how government works," according to a White House news release.