"Under Every Rock"

Beset by a constant barrage of disclosures about horrific waste, the Pentagon is struggling to get a tighter control over spending practices. Last week the Defense Department's inspector general, Joseph Sherick, pointed out that over the past three years his office had conducted 59,000 internal audits, potentially saving the Government $6.1 billion. Many of the most blatant examples of waste and cost overruns cited by the press and Congress, Sherick insisted, had actually been ferreted out by his team of 19,000 auditors.

One such investigation uncovered by Pentagon auditors that came to light last week: because of inflated cost estimates, claims an internal Air Force memo, the Lockheed Corp. stands to earn nearly twice the profits agreed upon for the production of five C-5B transport planes. Another horror story was reported last week by the Washington Post: in 1981, top executives at General Dynamics allegedly sought to delay the disclosure of a $100 million cost overrun on its nuclear-submarine program until lucrative new Navy contracts that would offset the losses were signed. Sherick laments, "I keep turning over rocks, and under every rock I keep finding things."