Pentagon Paid $998,798 to Ship Two 19-Cent Washers

[Nomad559]

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601070&sid=aY5OQ5xv9HR8

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.

[librechik]

1. were they shipping them to Australia? cuzz that is almost as expensive

as when I sent 6 boxes of graham crackers to Melbourne ($65 US)

[ThomCat]

5. Um, not not even in the same order of magnitude.

Seriously, move that decimal point over a bunch of spaces. Then it would be comparable.

[Jim__]

2. It sounds like a joke.

Pay automatically - maybe. But, follow up with a little reality check.

[babylonsister]

3. $600 toilet seats don't sound so bad now. nt

[ThomCat]

4. Up to 20 years in jail for each count!

Damned war profiteers! :grr:

I wish we could get full forensic audits of the entire pentagon budget. I'd be willing to bet that at least half of all money spent by the pentagon is wasted every year. And it's probably far more than half.

[GodlessBiker]

6. All that money went into the Roswell Project.

[displacedtexan]

7. Some of it went to...

Eureka.

[valerief]

8. Well, as long as they're Bu$hCo supporters, nothing will happen to them. nt

[GreenTea]

9. You can bet this company wants this war for profit to continue!

[Mugsy]

10. Why is this story in the Op/Ed forum...

...and not "General Discussion" or "Breaking News"?