3 ms·
This is similar to hospitals sometimes billing $300 for a simple saline IV bag. Creative accounting where the cost of highly scrutinized items is reduced, so ot
by athenot 3y ago
This is similar to hospitals sometimes billing $300 for a simple saline IV bag. Creative accounting where the cost of highly scrutinized items is reduced, so other items are inflated to essentially make up for the difference.
- culi 3y agoI think this idea is disproven in the first couple paragraphs by simply comparing markup over previous payments: > Until 2010, Boeing charged an average of $300 for a trash container used in the E-3 Sentry, a surveillance and radar plane based on the 707 civilian airliner. When the 707 fell out of use in the United States, the trash can was no longer a “commercial” item, meaning that Boeing was not obligated to keep its price at previous levels, according to a weapons industry source who spoke to RS. > In 2020, the Pentagon paid Boeing over $200,000 for four of the trash cans, translating to roughly $51,606 per unit. In a 2021 contract, the company charged $36,640 each for 11 trash containers, resulting in a total cost of more than $400,000. The apparent overcharge cost taxpayers an extra $600,000 between the two contracts. > In another case, Lockheed Martin hiked the price of an electrical conduit for the P-3 plane as much as 14 fold, costing the Pentagon an additional $133,000 between 2008 and 2015. > Jamaica Bearings — a company that distributes parts manufactured by other firms — sold the Department of Defense 13 radio filters that had once cost $350 each for nearly $49,000 per unit in 2022. The apparent markup cost taxpayers more than $600,000 in extra fees.