Posted on Sun, Oct. 23, 2005
Pentagon's prime-vendor program seen as costlier
By LAUREN MARKOE and SETH BORENSTEIN
Knight Ridder News Service
WASHINGTON - The Pentagon paid $20 apiece for plastic ice-cube trays that once cost it 85 cents. It paid a supplier more than $81 apiece for coffee makers that it bought for years for just $29 from the manufacturer.
The reason: Instead of getting competitive bids or buying directly from manufacturers, as it used to, the Pentagon is using middlemen who set their own prices. It's the equivalent of shopping for weekly groceries at a convenience store.
And it's costing taxpayers 20 percent more than the old system, a Knight Ridder investigation found.
Much, much more, here:
http://www.dfw.com/mld/dfw/news/nation/12977193.htm