Author Topic: America now just throwing money away  (Read 3739 times)

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Offline karajorma

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America now just throwing money away
http://news.yahoo.com/s/bloomberg/20070816/pl_bloomberg/ardg6dwccmfi

Quote
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 a Texas base, 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.

C&D's fraudulent billing started in 2000, Stroot, the Defense Criminal Investigative Service's chief agent in Raleigh, North Carolina, said in an interview. ``As time went on they got more aggressive in the amounts they put in.''

The price the military paid for each item shipped rarely reached $100 and totaled just $68,000 over the six years in contrast to the $20.5 million paid for shipping, she said.

``The majority, if not all of these parts, were going to high-priority, conflict areas -- that's why they got paid,'' Stroot said. If the item was earmarked ``priority,'' destined for the military in Iraq, Afghanistan or certain other locations, ``there was no oversight.''

The scheme unraveled in September after a purchasing agent noticed a bill for shipping two more 19-cent washers: $969,000. That order was rejected and a review turned up the $998,798 payment earlier that month for shipping two 19-cent washers to Fort Bliss, Texas, Stroot said.

The Pentagon Defense Logistics Agency orders millions of parts a year. Stroot said the agency and the Defense Finance and Accounting Service, which pays contractors, have made major changes, including thorough evaluations of the priciest shipping charges.

And I complain about the P&P on my deliveries. :D I especially love the last part though.

Quote
Dawn Dearden, a spokeswoman for the logistics agency, said finance and procurement officials immediately examined all billing records. Stroot said the review showed that fraudulent billing is ``is not a widespread problem.''

``C&D was a rogue contractor,'' Stroot said. While other questionable billing has been uncovered, nothing came close to C&D's, she said. The next-highest contractor billed $2 million in questionable transport costs, she said.

Only $2m. Well that's okay then. :D
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Offline IceFire

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Re: America now just throwing money away
And guess who owns most of your foreign debt while your at it?  China.
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Offline Shade

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Re: America now just throwing money away
I should be surprised at this. I should be horrified that it's even possible. But somehow, all I can manage is a slight chuckle while shaking my head...
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Offline Mefustae

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Re: America now just throwing money away
And guess who owns most of your foreign debt while your at it?  China.
Really? I thought it was Japan.

 

Offline akenbosch

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Re: America now just throwing money away
how often does the US mass-purchase goods from japan?

(hint: how often do you see "made in japan"?

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Offline Maxwell

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Re: America now just throwing money away
First:
Who owns the Debt?
1. US taxpayers.
2. The US government (Social Security).
3. Foreign governments including Japan (The bulk of it) several nations in the Caribbean, The British, and China.

Second:
This sounds like a clerical goof up that criminals took advantage of.

People want the government to be responsive to certain things. They want to see that important jobs get done quickly and expect "the most powerful nation on earth"(tm) to find a way. 
The fastest way to speed up a process is to cut out the bureaucracy and start tossing around lots of money... but then you lose accountability, and stuff like this can happen easily. 

The solution is more oversight, more guys running around and double checking boxes, more Crunching the numbers to be sure business is on the up and up, more making sure that we get what we pay for... and with it comes with the cost of a slower government that now cant get things from US soil to the front lines of a war with any form of expedience (and you still have to pay for the paperwork).

Governments are not perfect.
I'm not sure what people really expect.

 

Offline Hades

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Re: America now just throwing money away
You guys just now figured out America is throwing away money?

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Offline Mars

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Re: America now just throwing money away
I really wish I didn't like where I am so much. Trouble is my life is here... I can't just go and throw it all away, on the other hand this country is going south fast.

 

Offline karajorma

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Re: America now just throwing money away
Second: This sounds like a clerical goof up that criminals took advantage of.

Except that they don't even seem to care. Notice the comment about the next one only having ****ed them over to the tune of $2m?

How much do you want to bet that pretty much every company charged more than their usual P&P because they knew they could get away with it? This one gets noticed cause it was ridiculous and they got greedy but how many companies do you think got away with gouging the tac payer but simply not being this adventurous?
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Offline TrashMan

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Re: America now just throwing money away
tragic....tragic.... :blah:
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Offline Nuke

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Re: America now just throwing money away
why the **** is this news? all governments are corrupt to some extent. and government contractors will always gouge on everything. you sorta always have to seeing as government contractors are usually the lowest bidder.
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Offline Black Wolf

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Re: America now just throwing money away
You guys just now figured out America is throwing away money?

Yeah. I mean... DARPA?
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Offline karajorma

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Re: America now just throwing money away
why the **** is this news? all governments are corrupt to some extent. and government contractors will always gouge on everything. you sorta always have to seeing as government contractors are usually the lowest bidder.

What's news is the sheer level of gouging going on here. $1m on an item worth less that a dollar is pretty impressive you have to admit.

Personally I couldn't give a damn as it's not my money but if I were an American taxpayer I'd be a lot more annoyed about how my money was being thrown away in this fashion.
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Offline NGTM-1R

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Re: America now just throwing money away
The metal in pennies is worth more than the coin, we have been throwing away a lot of money. :P
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Offline Maxwell

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Re: America now just throwing money away
Quote
Notice the comment about the next one only having ****ed them over to the tune of $2m?

Ever wonder how much you'll spend for the bean counters needed to untangle this mess?
Then theres the lawyers and court fees...

I'm not condoning wasteful spending or saying the perpetrators of such scams should be let go, but it seems to me like the US gets lashed excessively over things that can and do happen in every government.
The only real mistake was letting information about the scam get made public before they could pack the guilty parties off to gitmo.

 

Offline TrashMan

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Re: America now just throwing money away
buttlet in the heads I say....or chop em off and donate to vasudans
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Offline karajorma

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Re: America now just throwing money away
Ever wonder how much you'll spend for the bean counters needed to untangle this mess?
Then theres the lawyers and court fees...

I'm not condoning wasteful spending or saying the perpetrators of such scams should be let go, but it seems to me like the US gets lashed excessively over things that can and do happen in every government.
The only real mistake was letting information about the scam get made public before they could pack the guilty parties off to gitmo.

Because the US does it on a bigger scale than anyone else. Name another case where you've heard of someone charging a one million percent mark up on a government contract?
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Offline Mars

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Re: America now just throwing money away
And when you pay taxes you'd better be accurate to the dollar.  :rolleyes:

I love the double standards our governement has.

 

Offline Maxwell

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Re: America now just throwing money away
Quote
Because the US does it on a bigger scale than anyone else.

The US government is bigger than most other governments (and bigger than the population of some nations).
More stuff happening + more people involved = more opportunity for **** to go wrong.

Quote
Name another case where you've heard of someone charging a one million percent mark up on a government contract?

You mean governments getting ripped off for millions of dollars by unscrupulous individuals? 
Or just plain spending of the peoples money on hookers and blow?

Both Happen fairly often. You can probably google up a half dozen scandals with ease.

A while ago here one senator decided to give 2 million dollars to a local airline for it to resume flights to the territory... which it did for a month, with empty flights that didn't so much as carry government traffic.
We got nothing, they got our cash.  Don't hold your breath waiting for any criminal trial.

 

Offline NGTM-1R

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Re: America now just throwing money away
Because the US does it on a bigger scale than anyone else. Name another case where you've heard of someone charging a one million percent mark up on a government contract?

Chinese. Military.
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