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NASA Contractor Fraud
Punk Walrus writes "AP New is reporting that NASA has been defrauded dozens of times with things like faulty parts for the International Space Station or even the theft of moon rocks. Just in the last year, NASA contractors and even some of its own employees (more than 50 individuals and nearly three dozen instances) have cost NASA a small chunk out of their $14.8 billion budget. In one case, a NASA contract worker pleaded guilty to accepting $27,000 worth of collect telephone calls from prison inmates, and her company billed the cost to the Hubble Space Telescope program. Remember when Opus on Bloom County wanted to build a satellite Shield of dollar bills around the earth's orbit? Now it doesn't seem so funny anymore."
From personal experience in the construction business, I can assure you one thing: 90% of the contractors you get are scum. What do you expect? You choose the guy who will do the job for the least amount of money... which means he's going to make up for it by giving you crap workmanship and materials.
:)
In the private sector, the engineers and project managers oversee every nut, bolt, wire tie and conduit connector that goes into a building. (Or at least they're supposed to). If the contractor bids the job saying he plans on using device X model FOO as manufactured by QUIX Co., then submits cut sheets for some other piece of equipment (or worse, the engineers visit the site and find something else already installed), you can bet they get a hard time about it.
If the engineers and the owners decide that the differnt product is acceptable, then the contractor has to pay the owner back whatever the difference in price is. If the product is no approved, then it gets rejected and the contractor has no choice but to install the equipment originally specified. The contractor doesn't get paid until the owner is satisfied that the job was done correctly and as approved by the designers. (And even then it's a struggle sometimes)
I can't say how NASA operates, but with government funding I wouldn't be surprized that few people really, really check the purchase orders and equipment that closely.
After all, the government doesn't get pissed when you run out of money, they just don't give you any more... a private owner would have his attack lawyers waiting outside your office the next morning!
Nobody should find it surprizing that people are exploiting a system that isn't looked after properly. I wonder if NASA does punchlists on their space shuttle repairs! (I can see it now... "O-ring seal on left booster rocket not installed correctly..."
=Smidge=
Congress is the worst abuser of NASA's budget. I don't see that changing as long as there is power to be had at the expense of the advancement of mankind.
Sorry about the writing. Robot fingers, you know? Cliff Steele in DOOM PATROL #23
Do you smoke? If so, do you take smoking breaks? Are those deducted from your work time? Or are you getting paid to smoke?
If you don't punch a clock and are five minutes late do you make up that five minutes or do you defraud your company?
It happens-- stop picking on NASA. They have employee problems just like Joe Schmoe Co. down the street.
"You may all go to hell and I will go to Texas"
Sen. Davy Crocket to US Congress, Nov. 1, 1835
Thank you for saying 90%... I think.
I am a government contractor, and not one of those megabloat corporations.
As a small business, our only calling card is our past performance. F**k up just once, and that can be the end of the company. Defraud the government, and that's your ticket to Federal Pound-me-in-the-Ass Prison for a looong time.
Contractors get a (well-deserved in many cases) bad reputation, and they don't get future work with the government (or at least that portion of it).
And yes, this was done on company time. As a salaried employee, I work 40-70 hours a week. We have a deal. I don't bitch when we have to work long hours, and he doesn't bitch when I screw around.