$900 for a $7 Switch? Our tax dollars at work

I didn't see any posts about this and just saw it online

A U.S. government contractor in Iraq charged the Pentagon a whopping amount of money for inexpensive items, including $900 for a $7 control switch, according to a new report from a U.S. watchdog.

U.S. Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction Stuart W. Bowen Jr. said review found that Anham, LLC, which is based in suburban Washington, allowed its subcontractors in Iraq to also charge $3,000 for a $100 circuit breaker, and $80 for a piece of plumbing equipment worth $1.41.


Read more: www.foxnews.com...

This has been going on for decades, as the Fraud Waste & Abuse debacles keep popping up. It is the contractors rigging the prices, but our govt had no problems paying it. Seems to me that there should have been mechanisms in place to catch these before a check or P.O. was cut. I remember hearing from a friend who was in a P3 flight crew, who requested a new $600 toilet seat for their head, and I also knew some Contractors who ordered $1000 hammers (on our dime now, of course). We have to get a grip on this. $900 for a $7 switch? This is insane! I wouldn't even care if it was a titanium/ceramic explosive proof switch. If it costs $7, why would anyone who is not a crook, need that much overhead? Ahhh, the American Way.... buy low sell high....

I have always suspected that those "overcharges" are how the government pays for black projects.

reply to post by sonofliberty1776


For sure. And a bit further down in the article that LLC speaks of how they 'saved' the govt millions of dollars. Now, just imagine the other contract/services bids that were not accepted. They must have been doozies

It is obvious that the government lets this go on. I am not positive, but I think that a possibility is that these contractors bid for certain jobs, and they will do everything they can to make sure they charge a certain amount. Or something similar to that situation at least seems likely...It's probably in the right direction at the very least.

It amazes me that not only does our government not fear the people, they are brazen and some will even flaunt their evil ways under the guise of peace, freedom, etc...they appeal to emotion and expect everyone to eat it up. And they get away with it.

Another possibility is that kickbacks are being paid for "jobs" like this. There probably isn't any oversight in a place like Iraq, at least not to the extent that there would be in the states, so they get away with more over there. And people wonder why we don't have any money. This kind of thing happens every single day, all day long.

I wouldn't even want to know the staggering amount of money the taxpayers have been cheated out of. This isn't even the worst wasteful spending by our government, yet lots of people only want to complain that the US gives too many handouts. Ya right, but nowhere near the amount of "corporate handouts" that are organized every year. Amazing. Simply amazing.

Here's a few other 'Pork Barrel' projects:

Coburn highlighted 100 of the most brazen federally funded projects in his Wastebook. For example, in 2010, the Institute of Museum and Library Services handed $615,000 of federal funds to the University of California at Santa Cruz to digitize Grateful Dead memorabilia, including flyers, shirts, tickets, and photographs.

link

And from the folks at the Citizens Against Government Waste is their 2010 Pig Book here showing how these earmarks (let's just call them bribes, shall we) for the 2010 fiscal year. Although many programs do merit funding, it is the unnecessary spending that gets bunched into them also.

To the tea party this is further proof why we should cut social security. God forbid we should ask so much as one dime in reduction of the pentagon's bloated budget.

reply to post by JiggyPotamus


The whole govt contract bidding is a sham. The object is to charge as much as possible, while strategically trying to underbid the other bidders. In these cases, the contractors know in advance if their bid will be considered, but in some cases the bidding is a formality, since it is 'unfair' to just award contracts. But in their way of thinking, if a politician has a relative in the switch business, it behooves him to encourage a contact bid. And if the contract is awarded to his buddy, then the stocks he bought in the company beforehand will show ripe dividends. Not to mention the oportunity for that same company to pick up other contracts based on his established govt ties.
I've heard stories 2nd hand on how annual budget accounts have to be overshot, in order to get an equal or larger budget for the following year. If you come in under budget for the year, your annual amount gets slashed, and they can't operate 'effectively' on a smaller budget. It's a sad state of affairs alright.

reply to post by Blackmarketeer


Absolutely. And if you read through the Pig Book (link above post) you will see hundreds of billions of dollars earmarked for other useless pork projects that could easily be cut and diverted over to economic stability.

So, how can one sale control switch's to the government?

reply to post by SkipperJohn


I wish. If they can give a college over $600,000 to archive Grateful dead memorabelia, I would like to apply for a grant to archive my 2 music CDs. I made tens of dollars on them and that should make them rare and collectible

And adding to the thread:

The outrage of millions of taxpayers following the $700 billion bank bailout and the $787 billion stimulus bill did not stop Congress from passing and President Obama from signing a bloated $410 billion Omnibus Appropriations Act in March. With the subsequent approval of the President’s budget, the national debt will triple over the next 10 years

from the 2009 Pig Book. But as I and a few others indicated in other threads, the $700B bailout was actually a $16 Trillion dollar bailout.

The dirty little secrete about defense contractors over there is simply this. They are paid a percentage over what they spend. The more they spend , the more they make. Nice heh?
www.halliburtonwatch.org...

reply to post by bluemooone2


Nice catch. It reminded me of a website that tracks federal contractor misconduct found here, which keeps track of the accumulative misdeeds of our infamous top 100 fed bum corporations.

As previously mentioned, this government waste has been going on for quite a while...everyone is quite aware of it and about every 5 or so years someone brings it front and center to the public's attention...they TALK about it, write books about it...but my question is...what are they going to DO about it?

If the past is any gauge of the present or future...nothing will be done. And once again, it's all about the individual...and to hell with the rest of 'em. Nothing will be done unless it will personally impact those involved...that's just the American way.

We see where the American way has gotten us...do we learn from our history? Nah..that would be too easy...we just might have to get off our butts and DO something. It has impacted those involved...We The People.

reply to post by OuttaTime


Thanks for posting this and get me stirred up on the subject for the 1000th time.

I am in the military. In the last 10 years, the amount of contractors has gone through the roof. Why not? The money faucet has been wide open. There is little oversight. The DC answer is simply to throw money at the problem. Why not? It ain't theirs. It all gets bundled with "Pentagon spending".

When folks get pissed off about "Pentagon spending", do they curtail the contractor insanity? Nope. What happens? Reduce the amount of troops. Reduce the amount of training. Increase combat tour lengths. Basically nickle and dime the unconnected in order to increase available funds where those funds are easier to get at. A little BS accounting to demonstrate the DoD is tightening the belt.

If the funds spent on the wars in the last 10 years were spent to DIRECTLY support an effective effort, it is a safe bet we would be long gone from these places. The people in those places would be better off as would the average American taxpayer.

reply to post by Holly N.R.A.


You're right. things will just keep running their course, as they've been getting away with it for decades. As I've heard the saying 'It's only illegal if you get caught', but if you make the rules then get caught, you can bend the rules and create a loophole to hide in. But just like many other things going sour, very little will change. The sleeping public will sit back and wait for the monsters that created the problem to somehow fix it.

reply to post by ABNARTY


I feel your pain brother! My family has a rather lengthy military heritage, along with friends and relatives that worked for the govt. The thing we have now is tht there is such a gluttony of crimes in every aspect of government in every corner of the world, it is immensely overwhelming. At times it just seems hopeless to knock some sense into our officials. But we also understand that a majority of it relates to fraud, kickbacks, bribes, earmarks, 'national security sensitive areas' and all that slop. Even though the contracts are necessary, the dollar amounts are phenominal. Yet the gobmint dumps the expense on us since we don't have enough bills already. Plus they get the profits at our expense too. It's rather insulting.

Originally posted by OuttaTime
I didn't see any posts about this and just saw it online

A U.S. government contractor in Iraq charged the Pentagon a whopping amount of money for inexpensive items, including $900 for a $7 control switch, according to a new report from a U.S. watchdog.

U.S. Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction Stuart W. Bowen Jr. said review found that Anham, LLC, which is based in suburban Washington, allowed its subcontractors in Iraq to also charge $3,000 for a $100 circuit breaker, and $80 for a piece of plumbing equipment worth $1.41.


Read more: www.foxnews.com...

This has been going on for decades, as the Fraud Waste & Abuse debacles keep popping up. It is the contractors rigging the prices, but our govt had no problems paying it. Seems to me that there should have been mechanisms in place to catch these before a check or P.O. was cut. I remember hearing from a friend who was in a P3 flight crew, who requested a new $600 toilet seat for their head, and I also knew some Contractors who ordered $1000 hammers (on our dime now, of course). We have to get a grip on this. $900 for a $7 switch? This is insane! I wouldn't even care if it was a titanium/ceramic explosive proof switch. If it costs $7, why would anyone who is not a crook, need that much overhead? Ahhh, the American Way.... buy low sell high....

Um didn't you know criticizing the government makes a you racist, racist.

It would work if you would just believe in it, stop being such a debbie downer.

What about freeing the slaves of capitalism?

LoL

reply to post by MasterGemini


A re-education perhaps?

This is not unique to the USA, lets say I may or may not have previously worked in the military of a european government. Anyway had I have worked there then I would know that they get charged a premium on all supplies, we once bought a batch of resistors for £1.30 a piece when they were available in your local electronics store for £0.03. Of course most of the big cheeses go on to CEO these suppliers. Corrupt as #