PENTAGON: CLOSED FOR CONSTRUCTION?

"This sounds a little strange," said a spokesman for the Coalition for Government Procurement, which monitors Pentagon contractor. Indeed, it sounds a whole lot strange.

The odd topic is massive government spending on new construction at military bases that have been closed or are in the process of being shut down. To compound the strangeness, the Pentagon says it can't even put its finger on how much money is at stake.

This is government at its worst. In an era of massive government deficits and financially overburdened social programs, taxpayers should be alarmed that such military waste is allowed to continue. And the amount isn't peanuts. Even though the military brass can't come up with an exact figure, it is conceded that the total is in the hundreds of millions of dollars -- funds that could be spent far more wisely on real military needs to keep the nation's defenses strong.

In its defense, the Pentagon says some of the construction on closed military bases was contracted before the decision to shut down. Thus, the reasoning goes, it is less expensive to pay for the construction than to break a contract. In reality, however, most of the projects under scrutiny had not been contracted before the closing decision was made.

And in fairness, it must be pointed out that base closings have saved taxpayers from paying for billions of dollars of planned construction. The Navy alone canceled some $974 million of projects at closed bases last year, the Pentagon reported, and the Army and Air Force cut hundreds of millions more.

But the fact remains that taxpayers are being soaked by a decision-making process that just doesn't make a whole lot of sense. And it doesn't give Mr. and Mrs. Taxpayer a great deal of relief to know the Pentagon doesn't even know exactly how much of this is going on.