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.
Take away the money, the incentive, and this problem will be substantially reduced, if not outright eliminated.
“Crappy DB programming at the heart of it.”
Ironically the DB programmer was a contractor on the list.
No… I’m a person that hates hypocrisy and am getting tired of people who are all too willing to jump on the Obama administration for stupid crap (really, Joe Biden saying the “number of the website”… is it that important?), but were all too happy to turn a blind eye to the last 8 years.
And although you claim to be a person who requires “hard data,” you have yet to provide any– and much like your claim that you are “with a Pres until he/she starts screwing up”– it’s apparently a figment of your over active imagination.
For the record, I find people who believe Obama walks on water annoying too and destructive to America in their own way.
# 23 Hyph3n said, on February 27th, 2009 at 1:23 pm
“No… I’m a person that hates hypocrisy and am getting tired of people who are all too willing to jump on the Obama administration for stupid crap…”
So what “silly crap” have I jumped on Obama about?
This is news?! I thought everyone knew this.
Oh and for the Obama defenders. Guess what?! Obama is just the newly elected Lap Dog for the Oligarchy. Sheep.
Not withstanding a 20 year old program to CREATE data..
That a $14k per year programmer could fix, or locate a BETTER program in 15 minutes..
WE are probably STILL talking about HARDWARE that is AT LEAST 10 years old..P2 or P Pro..
WHICH the Gov over paid for in the first place.
IF you know how this works, check with any DENNY/Auto parts store/… and find out HOW MUCH they paid for that 486/586 with PROPRIETARY software. About $10k with a MONO MONITOR..
WE are talking about people that have the mentality of a 2 year old, ABOUT hardware and software.. THEY have NO idea of costs, or WHAT is available at this time.
THEY push the buttons, and DEAL WITH IT..
I would also ask about DATA INPUT. As if a “,” is such a MIGHTY FACTOR, then SOMEONE is inserting MULTIPLE NAMES with extra delimiters to bypass HOW the system works..
Easier then Changing the name of the corp, FILE with a “,” in your name?
# 23 Hyph3n said, on February 27th, 2009 at 1:23 pm
“No… I’m a person that hates hypocrisy and am getting tired of people who are all too willing to jump on the Obama administration for stupid crap…”
Stick with your belief thing. Logic isn’t your strong suit.
With the billion dollar stimulus, they can buy some rack mounted Google Search Appliances to cure this problem.
Personally, I have a great deal of faith that the Obama admin will cease doing business with evil entities. And why would they deal with Blackwater, for example, when they have much more benign choices like the Xe Corp?
One of the problems is that there often aren’t that many companies ready, willing, and able to do some of this crap on short notice.
If you need a private sector fighting force based in the states but able to send thousands of troops anywhere on short notice exactly how many companies do you know that can actually do it?
My list is/was Blackwater. Now they’ve changed the name and maybe subdivided the company but they are still the entire list.
Of course it you are willing to out source/subcontract it to organizations based in other nations your options should be bigger but then you don’t know who the bleep you’re hiring either.