Pentagon contractor's 9,400% profit on a half-inch metal pin is challenged

[yortsed snacilbuper]

The Pentagon is weighing legislation that would give contracting officers the power to demand back-up data on spare parts costs after its inspector general said TransDigm Group Inc. could be paid about 9,400% in excess profit for a half-inch metal pin.

The Defense Logistics Agency could end up paying TransDigm $4,361 for the “drive pin” in a July contract that should cost $46, according to a Pentagon review endorsed by the inspector general.

The review found potential excess profits for 98 of 100 parts sampled and concluded the Pentagon may end up paying TransDigm $91 million more in coming years for parts valued at $28 million, with excess profit per part of 95% to the 9,380%, the Defense Department’s inspector general said in an audit labeled “For Official Use Only” and obtained by Bloomberg News.

As the Pentagon weighs whether to recommend legislation to require more disclosure by contractors, the House Committee on Oversight and Reform will review the audit and TransDigm’s pricing policies in a hearing on Wednesday.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/companies/pentagon-contractors-9400percent-profit-on-a-half-inch-metal-pin-is-challenged/ar-AABm2PT?ocid=spartanntp

[guillaumeb]

1. There is no effective oversight of the war budget.

And the same conservatives who regularly speak about abuse in social welfare programs say nothing about the waste in the war budget.

[gratuitous]

2. Was it earlier this year or late last year?

The Pentagon took a shot at auditing their expenditures, and issued a report saying it was practically impossible to figure out where the money went, but they wanted a pat on the head for trying. I remember feeling nauseated while reading the story.

[guillaumeb]

4. Yes, it was recent.

The Pentagon admitted that their budget as essentially un-auditable.

Imagine the conservative outcry if any social welfare Agency made the same admission.

[Celerity]

3. MSU scholars find $21 trillion in unauthorized government spending

MSU SCHOLARS FIND $21 TRILLION IN UNAUTHORIZED GOVERNMENT SPENDING; DEFENSE DEPARTMENT TO CONDUCT FIRST-EVER AUDIT

https://msutoday.msu.edu/news/2017/msu-scholars-find-21-trillion-in-unauthorized-government-spending-defense-department-to-conduct/

Earlier this year, a Michigan State University economist, working with graduate students and a former government official, found $21 trillion in unauthorized spending in the departments of Defense and Housing and Urban Development for the years 1998-2015.

The work of Mark Skidmore and his team, which included digging into government websites and repeated queries to U.S. agencies that went unanswered, coincided with the Office of Inspector General, at one point, disabling the links to all key documents showing the unsupported spending. (Luckily, the researchers downloaded and stored the documents.)

Now, the Department of Defense has announced it will conduct the first department-wide, independent financial audit in its history (read the Dec. 7 announcement here).

The Defense Department did not say specifically what led to the audit. But the announcement came four days after Skidmore discussed his team’s findings on USAWatchdog, a news outlet run by former CNN and ABC News correspondent Greg Hunter.

“While we can’t know for sure what role our efforts to compile original government documents and share them with the public has played, we believe it may have made a difference,” said Skidmore, the Morris Chair in State and Local Government Finance and Policy at MSU.

Skidmore got involved last spring when he heard Catherine Austin Fitts, former assistant secretary of Housing and Urban Development, refer to a report which indicated the Army had $6.5 trillion in unsupported adjustments, or spending, in fiscal 2015. Given the Army’s $122 billion budget, that meant unsupported adjustments were 54 times spending authorized by Congress. Typically, such adjustments in public budgets are only a small fraction of authorized spending.

snip

[guillaumeb]

5. Imagine 21 trillion in unauthorized Government spending in any Agency except in the war machine.

The conservative outcry would be deafening.