Watching Those We Chose: Oh for the good old days of $500 hammers and $600 toilet seats!

Watching Those We Chose: Oh for the good old days of $500 hammers and $600 toilet seats!:

"A South Carolina defense contractor pleaded guilty yesterday to bilking the
Pentagon out of $20.5 million over nearly 10 years by adding hundreds of
thousands of dollars to the cost of shipping spare parts such as metal washers
and lamps. The parts were bound for key military installations, including those
in Iraq and Afghanistan. In one instance, in 2006, the government paid C&D
Distributors $998,798 in transportation costs for shipping two 19-cent washers.
Charlene Corley, 47, co-owner of C&D Distributors, used the
money to pay for luxury homes, cars, plastic surgery and jewelry, according to
court documents. 'It is a troubling case because the fraud took place during a
time of war,' said Kevin McDonald, the first assistant U.S. attorney for the
District of South Carolina. The $20 million 'that could have gone to assist our
military was diverted and used in a fraudulent manner for excessive personal
enjoyment.'"

The solution to this is an open competitive bidding process. In a honestly open market this kind of scam would not have survived, because another company could have come along and offered a better deal to the military.