Companies that defrauded the United States and jeopardized American lives received new government work despite rulings designed to stop them from receiving federal contracts, government investigators report.
Payments went to a company whose president tried to sell nuclear bomb parts to North Korea, a company that jeopardized lives on the aircraft carrier USS John F. Kennedy, and a seller of body armor that the Air Force said was defective.
The companies were on a government database of 70,000 individuals and businesses suspended or barred by various U.S. agencies from receiving government contract work.
The Government Accountability Office blamed some of the mistakes on faulty computer searches by officials who left out commas or periods. But it also said the search engine for the database often failed to identify any of the entries on the exclusion list.
A hypothetical suspended company named XYZ Corp., Inc. — with a comma — would escape detection if one searched for XYZ Corp. Inc. — without the comma — the report said.
The investigators found a staggering list of offenses by companies awarded new contracts. They included use of fictitious Social Security numbers, massive tax fraud, delivery of faulty parts for the military, false filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, use of insider information to bid on federal contracts, and Medicare fraud.
Found by William Taylor.
“A hypothetical suspended company named XYZ Corp., Inc. — with a comma — would escape detection if one searched for XYZ Corp. Inc. — without the comma — the report said.”
Now that’s what I call a high-tech, mil-spec, piece of software. Those of us without millions and billions to spend have to use crap like Google which would respond: “Did you mean XYZ Corp.,Inc.?”
Sometimes I just feel so tired.
sounds about right
I am shocked, _SHOCKED_ to learn that this is happening! And now, something completely different…
Before someone else says it:
“New boss, same as the old boss”…
Does the word treason have any meaning at all anymore? We should just remove it from the dictionary.
Crappy DB programming at the heart of it.
If you get rid of all the corrupt defense contractors we won’t have any left.
Well, before we get into Obama bashing, all of these payments were made before he came into office…. feel free to Bush bash tho’.
# 8 Hyph3n said, “Well, before we get into Obama bashing…”
Exactly. I’m sure he’ll make sure than none of these companies get another dime from the US taxpayer, just wait…
Bad software aside, it is folly to rely completely on computers for managing contracts and payments. How does this stuff slip by? It’s truly frightening that our government databases are this poorly managed and maintained. I’m not saying it is easy, but I would expect better accountability than this. What the hell is going on over there?
MASSIVE fraud and incompetence at every level, government and private, led to current economic crisis:
http://market-ticker.org/archives/835-Remarks-Of-TickerGuy.html
#9 Paddy-O said “Exactly. I’m sure he’ll make sure than none of these companies get another dime from the US taxpayer, just wait…”
It’s hard to see how the Obama administration could be any more in bed with the defense industry than the Bush administration, but the point– right here, right now, you can not blame this one on Obama.
Who knows… he might give these companies contracts in the future, then feel free to get up on your soapbox. But for right now, focus your indignation on the dude who just left.
#12 What ARE you babbling about? I said Obama would fix it.
We all see these kinds of reports on a daily basis now. When will someone take action? It’s time to take to the streets with pitchforks and torches and force action and accountability from those elected. A few forceful removals from office should get things going. Nothing motivates more than the possibility of losing your job or life to truly inspire one to act.
Paddy-O… Good to see that you’re now on the Obama team. I’ll send you a “Yes, We Can” t-shirt. Wear it proudly.
# 15 Hyph3n said, “Paddy-O… Good to see that you’re now on the Obama team.”
I’m always with a Pres until he/she starts screwing up, and then only get on ‘em on particular areas of stupidity.
#16 Paddy-O “I’m always with a Pres until he/she starts screwing up, and then only get on ‘em on particular areas of stupidity.”
So, based on that statement and the topic of this post, then you agree that the Bush administration and at least several members of the Republican party were incompetent at best and corrupt at worse? And that we should give Obama a chance. (Wear that shirt proudly.) Good to see that we agree.
# 17 Hyph3n said, “So, based on that statement and the topic of this post, then you agree that the Bush administration and at least several members of the Republican party were incompetent at best and corrupt at worse?”
I agree that specific people were corrupt & specific people were incompetent in specific actions.
If you’d like to talk about named people and named actions go ahead.
Paddy-O… This is not about me… I’m perfectly happy to believe that the entire Bush administration and most of the Republican are both incompetent and corrupt with the exception of a few rare instances (Actually, I started typing out a list of names… Duke Cunningham, Duncan Hunter, Scooter Libby, Donald Rumsfield, blah, blah, blah… but my hand started cramping.)
No, you said… “I’m always with a Pres until he/she starts screwing up, and then only get on ‘em on particular areas of stupidity.”
I see a lot of bitching about Obama comments even before he was in office, not so many complaints about Bush or Republicans. I wanted to give you a chance to show me.
Don’t tell me you say one thing and do another… that’s something I would expect from a politician like Obama.
# 19 Hyph3n said, “Paddy-O… This is not about me… I’m perfectly happy to believe ”
Ah, I see. You are a person who “believes”. I’m am a person that requires hard data.
Logic vs. a belief system. Well, god luck with that.