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US Air Force wildly overpaid Boeing by almost 8,000% for C-17 aircraft bathroom soap dispensers, Pentagon watchdog finds

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The US Air Force majorly overpaid for C-17 spare parts, including bathroom soap dispensers, per a Pentagon watchdog. The dispensers were 80 times more expensive than the commercially available alternative. The audit of C-17 part purchases was done in response to a DoD Hotline allegation. The US Air Force overpaid for spare parts for a C-17 military transport aircraft manufactured by Boeing, according to a new watchdog report. In one example, an audit found, the service paid more than 80 times… (www.msn.com) More...

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pheliks
John Graham 5
Has anyone in the airforce ever gone to home depot and bought a soap dispenser with 8000% markup? What's wrong with these nitwits? No wonder we have children in Florida that have to brush their teeth in gas station bathrooms every morning and change their cloths in their live-in car
augerin
Dave Mathes 1
...profit baby, profit... :-(
...make the system so convoluted that nobody can rationally decipher it, remember, it's only illegal if you get caught...
NancyRovenstine
Nancy Rovenstine 6
So tired of governmental waste. Both sides do it!
jkeifer3
Joe Keifer 4
I remember when I was in government service, you could purchase complete Skilcraft ball point pens from the GSA for about ten cents apiece.

If you tried to purchase just the refills, they would charge you a buck fifty for each refill.
augerin
Dave Mathes 3
...does this actually surprise anyone?..it's literally been going on for ever...
nasdisco
Chris B 8
This is how US taxpayers keep Boeing solvent and out of Chapter 11.
Thompsor
Ron Thompson 2
remember the C-5 toilet price! Nothing has changed in the aq. process!
CHRISMORGAN
CHRIS MORGAN 3
Why does a soap dispenser HAVE to be supported by reims of paperwork? It's hardly a critical engineering item; did anyone ever think of looking on-line, under 'cheap soap dispensers'?
tgrugle
Thomas Grugle 1
Sometimes other "things" are wrapped up in payments to defense contractors.
vaclavkoranda
Vaclav Koranda 3
We had a similar case in my country many years ago. A new police president decided to enhance the police's public image by standardizing the counters in all police stations with a unified fancy design. Local police chiefs received the design and a budget for implementation, allowing them to select a local vendor to fit the counters into the specific layout of each station. Then, some 'clever' watchdog noticed that many local police chiefs had apparently purchased severely overpriced counters. It turned into a major media scandal with allegations of corruption. Later, it was revealed that these police chiefs had used the funds to cover essential building repairs—such as fixing leaking roofs—for which they had never received a budget, instead of just purchasing fancy new counters.
linbb
linbb 3
Happens all the time due to the way government purchases items. Too many layers of people and different agencies handling it. Its a problem thats been going on for years few on the outside understand it. Yes you can walk into Home Depot and get it cheaper but the way they buy there are layers upon layers that handle that purchase order.
TorstenHoff
Another contributing factor is that anything involving aircraft is tested, certified and documented to higher standards than non-aviation analogues. The entire supply chain is tracked, which is why common things like bolts and washers get exponentially more expensive.
ko25701
ko25701 3
You're right, but we all know that the wasteful spending on non critical parts does not improve safety.
DougHaviland
Doug Haviland 1
Like all things Gubermint, the product can not be purchased until the paperwork outweighs the product by at least 5x.
lanceanz
Lance Andrewes 4
"Almost 8,000%" sounds a lot worse than "80x", but I was interested to know the actual price paid per dispenser. Surely that is the most useful metric?

I found the original audit report on the DOD site, however crucial information is redacted. It tells us that they overpaid by $US149,072, based on the price of a "typical commercial counter-mounted soap dispenser". They give a photo of a Brobick B-82216 which I found on Amazon US for $US56. If they'd bought in bulk from Brobick I'm sure they could have paid a lot less. Since the DOD redacted all individual prices and the quantity purchased, and my brain is rusty, I asked Microsoft Copilot to run the numbers. Based on a unit cost of $56, the USAF bought 33 dispensers at about $4,500 each. But let's say that the non-inflated price was $40 per item. In that case the USAF bought 47 dispensers at $3,217 each.

Over many years of working for my government I've often been frustrated by the way money is misspent. In particular I've seen hundreds of thousands and even millions spent on IT projects that are simply abandoned. If these soap dispensers let the crew maintain hand-hygiene on their C-17, then it is money well (over)spent. :-)
druck13
druck13 3
Sorry, you used Copilot for something that required numerical facts?
belzybob
belzybob 2
Its been going on for years. KC135 toilet seats and fire axes came up as an issue decades ago.
Pmyokhin
Peter Myo Khin 1
I guess it was the KC 135 and not the C-5..
Mikedryden
Mike Dryden 2
Why is it x80 more? Because someone wrote a (or more likely, modified an old) specification that meant that the commercial, off the shelf (COTS) part wasn't acceptable because it doesn't come with paperwork. Either the manufacturer didn't ask for dispensation from the requirement because they answer is always no, or they did ask and the answer was no because it would have to go back to the head of AMC for sign off, which just gets too hard and takes too long. And there is a good chance the answer will be no anyway. So they things need to get made specifically for the contract. Then spares need to be maintained. And rather than make 5,000 like they would in commercial land, they make 10, because that's all that get ordered.

Each dispenser will come with paperwork that weighs more than the dispenser does. But it will be (well... should be) traceable from its spot in the airframe to the batch number of the material it was made from and the guy who signed it off as right.

The cost of the investigation and the change in specifications will cost more than the $1M that was "majorly overpaid". 'majorly overpaid'... in a 'business' rag. What the hell happened to decent use of language in reporting?
jpatrix
patrick bloem 2
It did not come with a PPAP from Home Depot!
ko25701
ko25701 0
And this is why we need term limits and someone to drain the swamp in DC.
Pmyokhin
Peter Myo Khin 5
What has this got to do with term limits and draining the swamp? Let's leave politics out of this discussion. No different than the $$$$ C-5 toilet seats of a couple of decades ago. Just lack of contracting oversight at DOD. Can be fixed with pushback.
Pmyokhin
Peter Myo Khin 1
I guess it was the KC 135 and not the C 5
BillOverdue
Bill Overdue -2
Except it has "everything" to do with politics and "draining the swamp"! Swamp creatures get the millions in kickbacks from the likes of Boeing, Lockheed Martin, RTX Corporation and Northrop Grumman. And the only way to eliminate it, is from a "non-political type". I think Elon Musk will do a great job at something like this! Political? Maybe so, but you gotta pick a side!
augerin
Dave Mathes 1
...Bill, your brain salid sandwich slid off the plate when you said '"I think Elon..."
augerin
Dave Mathes 1
...what the f#^$ does this even mean?...
pwahle2012
Patrick Wahle 0
As an aircraft owner we all went through the overpriced world of aircraft parts. I doubt all those ‘certified” parts when through the screening process.
In fact this is part of the overpriced world of insurance. Who would want to see his insurance coverage denied because the sun shade was not FAA approved?
BillOverdue
Bill Overdue -4
This is a great place for Elon to start!
UU539771
mark robinson 2
Maybe he should have started with his own decision to overpay by $20 BILLION for Twitter.....
Hardly a good track record, is it?
CHRISMORGAN
CHRIS MORGAN 1
Advantage Robinson, Overdue to serve

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