Cord Byrd: “it's difficult to imagine a subject that is more obscure and more arcane than the federal procurement process. At times…”

“it's difficult to imagine a subject that is more obscure and more arcane than the federal procurement process. At times, it seems as though an impenetrable fog hangs over government contractors, clouding the process by which taxpayer funds are awarded and spent. Nowhere is the issue of federal procurement more clouded, more obscured from public scrutiny than in the Defense Department. What little information makes it into the mainstream media usually reinforces the worst cliches about government waste. The stories are familiar. We have all heard them. They are a grotesque litany of negligence and greed. We read that the Pentagon has awarded billions of dollars to a contractor to produce a new supersonic stealth fighter. Twenty aircraft come off the production line and hundreds more are planned--only then do we find out that nobody has tested the new fighter to see if it actually works. We read of how a contractor has charged the Federal Government for products and services never provided, and then of how the government must engage in lengthy, costly efforts to get the taxpayers' money back. And then there is the over-billing. We read about Defense Department officials who must wrestle with contractors over inflated pricing of spare parts. A disputed bill for airplane parts in 1999 includes: $2,522 for a 4", $744 for a washer, $714 for a rivet, and $5,217 for a 1-inch metal bracket.”