Sikorsky Overcharged Army for Black Hawk Part

DoD IG's office is targeting Sikorsky for overcharging the U.S. Army, including charging $2,393.41 for a plastic part worth $181.70. This will be overplayed by budget hawks, I expect. Ouch.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-...-181-black-hawk-plastic-part-audit-finds.html

Having a close relative who manages auditors for DCAA (not directly involved with these particaular contracts to my knowledge), I can tell you that Congress has no idea what is wrong with the system that creates these "newsworthy" problems.

My relative's take is that DCAA is the messenger who gets shot for delivering the bad news. Take this quote from the article...

“Unfortunately, this latest report is yet another example illustrating the department’s broken and ineffective inventory and accounting systems,” said Senator Tom Carper, a Delaware Democrat who heads a financial management subcommittee.

The audits that reveal these issues are identifying places where contracts are written that provide unclear pricing and monitoring mechanisms, which contractors and subcontractors will attempt to exploit. Many of the past historical examples of outrageously priced items actually were correctly priced per the terms of the contract given the unclear language. Somebody just needs to write better contracts. The auditors don't get input to the contracting process, even as to suggest ways to make compliance clear and fair. They just get to attempt to interpret whether the contractor/subcontractor has complied with the letter of the contract. Where they have unclear contracts, they raise issues the best the can.

My sinister hat says this is just the beginning of softening the DoD up for cuts.
 
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