Bloomberg.com: Politics — You actually have to wonder how much of this is going on all over the place with this lack of oversight.
A small South Carolina parts supplier collected about $20.5 million over six years from the Pentagon for fraudulent shipping costs, including $998,798 for sending two 19-cent washers to an Army base in Texas, U.S. officials said.
The company also billed and was paid $455,009 to ship three machine screws costing $1.31 each to Marines in Habbaniyah, Iraq, and $293,451 to ship an 89-cent split washer to Patrick Air Force Base in Cape Canaveral, Florida, Pentagon records show.
The owners of C&D Distributors in Lexington, South Carolina — twin sisters — exploited a flaw in an automated Defense Department purchasing system: bills for shipping to combat areas or U.S. bases that were labeled “priority” were usually paid automatically, said Cynthia Stroot, a Pentagon investigator.
found by Aric Mackey
Why aren’t there any checks and balances on these guys? This kind of corruption has been going on for years, yet nobody ever has to answer for it.
The owner of this company should go to jail for a long time. I’m sick and tired of hearing about asswipes like this who end up living high on the hog on my tax dollars.
I can assume then the owner of the company will hang themselves – before being executed? 😉
I am also “sick and tired of hearing about asswipes like this who end up living high on the hog on my tax dollars.”
Cheers
Why isn’t dvorak’s banner that says “Your Tax-Dollars at Work” up on this one?
What!? They paid 19¢ apiece for those washers? Criminal!
Makes me want to start a shipping company and contract with the Pentagon!!!! I don’t feel the need to pay for Jenna Bush’s wedding!!
Well, when you just got to have it…
And we want the same people controlling health care WHY?
It was around 1999, the company i worked for fix 20gig IDE drives from government for $700 a pop.
They came out form equipments that based on x86 running dos 6.22, run some priority program from autoexec.bat. we just cloned the drive to new replacement model for that time which cost like $80 worked just fine but they still insisted on fixing all the broken drives.
There was a 3rd party company that was going to fix them for 400 each but they were afraid that was too cheap. A year later all the hdd we repair came back to be destoryed, which also cost $$$.
Waste of tax $$$
#8 you’re right. I mean, your tax dollars are far better spent on a pointless war that is costing BILLIONS. if there’s gonna be corruption, it might as well be spent on the war.
You know what’s funny…
I consider this a helluva lot closer to treason than when the neocons accuse liberals of treason when they weren’t/aren’t supporting the war in Iraq…
Aren’t we being a little too critical here? I’m sure the government was using “Forever” stamps to ship the washers. Yeah they cost a little more now, but look at the savings a couple of years on. Quit being so near sighted, I mean even Baroness Patricia could support this.
However, I agree with #8. I mean right now, with privatized health care, I can get my tonsils removed for $998,798. Can you imagine how much it would cost if the government were footing the bill?
As an addendum, this blog would be doing a good public service by reporting on the following: Learn from the fall of Rome, US warned
13,
DITTO…
What I find funny, is that 10+ years ago..
A group ran a Questioner threw a STATE representitives, and State congress…
How much is the price of milk.
how much does bread cost.
How much was your suit.
How much do you pay for your heating.
How much does the Electric company charge..
questions like those..
I THINK, 4 got 20% correct…
the rest FELL FLAT..
You guys completely miss the point. In fact this company is being patriotic, making sure the fat portion of the dollar spent with this “war” stays at home.
The government does idiotic spending. It amazes me how we keep investigating other companies for ‘gouging’ when the government does it to me each paycheck.
That being said, this is likely more a story about how things were itemized wrong. The last time this happened it was a hammer or a toilet for thousands of dollars. It was a great piece that the reporter did and became a legend for many years. Turns out we only knew half of the story. The company was supposed to sell the government many different things on the invoice totalling millions of dollars. This included such things as jet engines. Along the way the detailed invoice was lost and another one needed to be created so they took the total and divided that by the number of items and listed each item for the same price.
From that you got something like a $2000 hammer (crazy expensive and what the story was based on) but you also got a $2000 jet engine (dirt cheap – completely ignored by the ‘reporter’ because there’s no story in ‘averaging out items’). The end cost was the same to the government as if they had bought all of the things individually at normal prices. Again, no story in that.
#8
I for one can’t wait until the Pentagon controls our health care. Think of the great new names that they’ll come up with for medical procedures. How much more cool it would be if instead of the doctor sending you in for a colonoscopy he told you that you were scheduled to participate in operation “Shock and Awe”.
Anyway if we can’t get the Pentagon to take over health care I’m sure there are plenty of private companies that could do a bang up job with it. What’s Enron doing these days anyway?
Yeah, and I’m sure other government agencies waste money like this. Did that sunshine law revealing all contracts ever pass? It was sponsored by Obama and COburn.
Why does anyone think there is anything at all factual about this bit of drivel from Bloomberg news?
Did anyone bother to see if there were any CREDIBLE sources for this alledged shipment?
After all anything even remotely related to the Mayor Nanny State of New York city (the same fools who voted in the likes of Clinton and Schumer) at the very least should be questioned…
#19
Just checked Fox News and your hunch was right. This story is 100% wrong!
They actually shipped four washers.
#11 – natefrog,
Hate to say it, but I’d rather have my tax dollars wasted on this than on the war in Iraq.
BTW, has everyone seen the 1994 film of Cheney stating all of the reasons not to go to war in Iraq? It’s pretty hilarious. He lists all the problems that we are having now as reasons not to go.
Not bad, when you consider how much Cheney’s company, Halliburton has made on the war. Another corporation getting over on Bushco, Inc. on the backs of the US public.
Damn, I would have done it for half that much!
I’d wouldn’t be surprised “if”–this company gave half of the profit back to Congress patrons in the form of “contributions” – – AND – –
the first auditor that tried to stop it got fired.
I think Hilliary proudly supports this system while the others bad mouth it and support it hypocritically.
#1, Ken, Please, quit being so stupid and read the article. It is easily accessable by clicking on the link at the beginning of this story. It will answer your questions.
#8, It would be a good idea for the GOVERNMENT to run health care insurance because
1)As here, they would be audited and criminally charged if they submitted fraudulent charges,
2)Auditors WILL look over the books to weed out cheats
3)Private insurance is just too wasteful, too costly, and doesn’t care about the patients.
4)Private insurance has no obligation to their clients and answers only to their shareholders
5)Private insurance has failed too many Americans
6)Private insurance has left too many people uninsured or under-insured.
7)Health care costs are the leading cause of bankruptcies. That mainly covers those WITH insurance.
19,
You’re just jealous because Bloomberg is a self-made billionare and actually gives a shit about the city he runs. Bloomberg Media can defend itself and is a far better news outlet for its industry than its competitors.
To simply say “nanny state” shows you know nothing about NYC. Do you have any specific examples? Can you find it on a map?
Patrick Air Force Base is not in Cape Canaveral, it is in Cocoa Beach/Satellite Beach.
25. “3)Private insurance is just too wasteful, too costly, and doesn’t care about the patients.”
So Walter Reed is just an aberration? Please.
Yes, but they’re VERY nice washers…actually made out of extraterrestrial platinum with miniaturized iPhone features.
#25 – Mr. Fusion,
Re: Private Health Insurance. Is it too hypocritical for an atheist to say a big fat ‘AMEN!!!!!’?