Today's hearing is the Committee's tenth hearing this Congress on waste, fraud, and abuse in the federal government. The subject oftoday's hearing is weapons acquisitions programs at the Department of Defense. ... We are holding this hearing for a simple reason: Weapons programs at the Defense Department are one of the biggest sources of wasteful spending in the federal budget. ... There seems to be absolutely no accountability to the taxpayer. Despite report after report documenting mismanagement in weapons acquisition, nothing seems to improve. The contractors keep getting rich, senior Pentagon officials keep receiving lucrative job offers, and the taxpayer keeps getting stuck with the check. ... The contract for building and testing the prototype was a cost-plus contract, so the company got paid even though the vehicle flunked its tests. Incredibly, General Dynamics even received over $60 million in bonuses for its work on the development contract. What's more, the Marine Corps says that General Dynamics will now get the new contract for $700 to $800 million to build another prototype. The signal that sends is unmistakable: no matter how bad ajob you do, there will be no accountability.
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We are holding this hearing for a simple reason: Weapons programs at the Defense Department are one of the biggest sources of wasteful spending in the federal budget.
There seems to be absolutely no accountability to the taxpayer.
Despite report after report documenting mismanagement in weapons acquisition, nothing seems to improve.
The contractors keep getting rich, senior Pentagon officials keep receiving lucrative job offers, and the taxpayer keeps getting stuck with the check.
The contract for building and testing the prototype was a cost-plus contract, so the company got paid even though the vehicle flunked its tests. Incredibly, General Dynamics even received over $60 million in bonuses for its work on the development contract.
What's more, the Marine Corps says that General Dynamics will now get the new contract for $700 to $800 million to build another prototype.
The signal that sends is unmistakable: no matter how bad ajob you do, there will be no accountability.
They're all the same, it's corporate welfare, the only difference is that the US has committees that tut-tut about it. In the UK it's entirely secret. keep to the Fen Causeway
... It was a different story just two decades ago. In the 1980s, 20 or more prime contractors competed for most defense contracts. Today, the Pentagon relies primarily on six main contractors to build our nation's aircraft, missiles, ships and other weapons systems. It is a system that largely forgoes competition on price, delivery and performance and replaces it with a kind of "design bureau" competition, similar to what the Soviet Union used -- hardly a recipe for success.
... It was a different story just two decades ago. In the 1980s, 20 or more prime contractors competed for most defense contracts. Today, the Pentagon relies primarily on six main contractors to build our nation's aircraft, missiles, ships and other weapons systems.
It is a system that largely forgoes competition on price, delivery and performance and replaces it with a kind of "design bureau" competition, similar to what the Soviet Union used -- hardly a recipe for success.
