Boeing Charges Pentagon $52,000 For Trash Can Previously Priced At $300
Some people are taking advantage of the government's generosity towards the Department of Defense by overcharging them for simple services.
The Pentagon budget is being pushed up by both Democrats and Republicans.
an investigation by
Responsibility in Statecraft
The Department of Defense has raised the prices of some of its contractors' products by multiples of astronomical magnitudes.
Boeing charged about $300 for trash cans
The E-3 Sentry Airborne Warning and Control System, or AWACS, is based on the Boeing 707 aircraft chassis. The trash can was no longer considered a commercial item after the aircraft disappeared from civilian fleets. Boeing could then take advantage of American taxpayers.
The United States Air Force will have 33 E-3 Sentry AWACS in service by 2020.
Photo via USAF
Airforce Technology
)
How bad?
The Pentagon paid Boeing more than $200,000 in 2020 for four trash cans. This is approximately $51,606 per unit.
Reports
Responsible Statecraft
Connor Echols. The Pentagon purchased 11 trash cans in 2021 at a "reduced" price of $36,640 per unit. The combined price of the two years' purchases was a staggering $36,640.
Markup of $600,000.
over previous prices.
Boeing isn't alone in taking advantage of taxpayers. For starters:
Jamaica Bearings Company, based in New York, sold the Pentagon 13 filters by 2022. It had been a while since it was manufactured.
Jamaica Bearings, which previously sold them for $350 each now charges $49,000 per bearing.
Lockheed Martin has increased the price of electrical conduits
P-3 Orion Anti-Submarine and Maritime Surveillance Plane
Up to 140%
From 2008 to 2015, the company earned an additional $133,000
After a May
60 Minutes
investigation
into defense contractor price-gouging, five senators sent a
Letter to Secretary of Defense
Lloyd Austin asks the Pentagon to conduct its own follow-up investigation.
"These companies have abused government trust by exploiting their position of sole suppliers for specific items in order to raise prices well above inflation and any reasonable profit margin,"
Senators Bernie Sanders, (I-VT), Charles Grassley, (RIA), Elizabeth Warren, (DMA), Mike Braun and Ron Wyden were all contacted by Senators Bernie Sanders.
The price gouging is a result of consolidation in the defense industry.
In the 1990s there were over 50 prime DoD contractors that could compete for major contracts. There are now only a handful of prime DoD contractors.
You can find out more about this by clicking here.
Only five"
Writes Echols
The National Defense Authorization Act has been updated.
The federal government will spend more than
850 billion dollars
In the fiscal year 2023, there will be a focus on "defense".
,
Contractors will eat up about half of the total.
The US spends more than any other country on its military. It's not often noted that the US government spends more on its military than all 10 countries combined.
Only two of the next 10 can be considered as adversaries
The US empire in its late stages