NASA Contractor Fraud 28
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."
Another contractor stole even more (Score:1, Funny)
Re:Another contractor stole even more (Score:2)
"In the eighties, the Air Force planned what was basically a giant crossbow to launch disk-shaped payload vehicles carrying satellites. They even considered it as a way to launch the shuttle. A working prototype was built at Area 51, and test launches were responsible for countless UFO sightings. Also, nothing ever got into useful orbit. Some payloads re-entered the atmosphere and burned up. Some landed in the ocean, and some just kept going deep into space." Mr. Kurtz pointed out that the whole thing was based on seized Soviet plans; plans that many felt must be part of an elaborate Kremlin campaign of disinformation and phony intelligence. "To make matters worse, the first bowstring supplier had defrauded the Air Force. The high tech micropolymer ropes they were selling were actually ordinary ones dyed blue! Until they discovered this, the apparatus did not work at all, the ropes would break every time. Even the real ones they finally got only worked once, then were to weak to use again. Read more. [uncoveror.com]
Put it in perspective (Score:4, Insightful)
Yeah, it pisses me off that greedy and selfish people are ripping NASA off, but consider this all important paragraph from the story:
Until we get some numbers here, I don't see where Rep. Dana Rohrabacher has the right to make statements like ``It is clear that there are some fundamental errors in the NASA system. I would hope that NASA Administrator (Sean) O'Keefe pays attention to these fundamental systemic problems.'' NASA has a lot to deal with already. Every government agency has to deal with waste and fraud. The big question is whether it is any worse at NASA than any other agency and this article does not even begin to answer that question.
GMD
Re:Put it in perspective (Score:2)
Actually, since you and I are footing the bill, I don't think the 'everyone else has the same problem' excuse is good enough. A better question is would expending additional resources on deterring, detecting and prosecuting fraud/waste have a net positive effect on the bottom line?
If there is currently $100M in fraud and spending $20M more on detecting and deterring fraud will deter/recover $50M of it, then that $20M should be spent. If the $20M will only deter/recover $10M, then obviously it would not be in the government's (or citizens') best interest to spend that $20M.
Of course I might be biased as I am a government auditor. Currently my organization averages about $100M in deterred/detected/recovered fraud/waste per year and we only cost the taxpayers a third of that.
they need to centralize and play hardball (Score:1)
www.nasawatch.com is a great place if you want to found NASA for silly behavior. My favorite notes of recent past are the millions that go to prokbellying supportive districts with no direct link to science or aerospace concerns.
Hell, NASA in the past ten years couldn't even figure out HOW MUCH they were overspending! I think if a problem has been around for more than ten years, you might have had the time to deal with it in a professional manner.
and don't get me started on their whole 'preferred contractor' anti-competitive behavior...
Re:Put it in perspective (Score:3, Insightful)
He has the right to say it because of the First Amendment, just like the rest of us do. That doesn't mean he's right, or that it's not a stupid thing to say.
A person like this can make a great amount of political hay by making grand, sweeping statements about eliminating waste in government. But he has to pick his targets carefully, because he could alienate a segment of his constituency if any of them happen to benefit from a particular example of waste. NASA, however, is a safe target which is why Congress can get away with giving it such a miniscule budget to begin with.
Happens all the time (Score:4, Interesting)
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=
Re:Happens all the time, but not on my watch!!!! (Score:1, Interesting)
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.
Re:Happens all the time (Score:2)
s/You/Only idiots/
s/\.\.\./ except conincidentally./
The worst abuses of their budgets (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:The worst abuses of their budgets (Score:3, Interesting)
Government contractors and Fraud? (Score:2)
Serisouly, I am not really surprised, this stuff happens all the time. Heck I worked for a multi-billion dollar company and we had some guy who made 11,000 dollars worth of 900 number calls, so as weird as the lady getting collect calls from prison is I am not surprised. The average person is a greedy idiot, government contracts are full of regular people (heck who do you think works for NASA, rocket scientists?
News Flash! (Score:2, Interesting)
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.
5 minute breaks? (Score:3, Insightful)
It's hard to feel bad about taking an extra 5 minutes breather when you spent to previous 3 days working through lunch, and most employers would probably agree. It's those whose attendance or performance is consistently poor that cause problems. Taking a 5 minute break (smoking or otherwise), is not nearly comparable to taking collect calls on the company budget (and from the size of the bill, probably spending a lot of company time on the phone).
When NASA (Score:1)
Until they do though they should be held to a higher standard then the private sector.
Biggest NASA fraud ever (Score:2)
The second is contractors claiming in the 70's that a space shuttle would be cheaper than one-off rocket launches.
It is one thing to deliver the wrong part for the right ship, but it is another to bamboozle somebody to build the wrong ship to begin with. Plus it is hard to prosecute such.
Re:Biggest NASA fraud ever (Score:1)
it's the way the game is played (Score:2)
Huge government contracts are hard to administer and even more difficult to eliminate from abuse. You only have a few contract monitors. The NASA system is set up to where you have one contracting officer that has cognizance of multiple contracts (millions upon millions of dollars). The contracting officer has to rely on COTRs (contracting officer's technical representative) to monitor and administer the day-to-day execution of the contract. These people are engineers that move into project management positions. COTR training last less than a week. I know, I was a COTR for a few years for NASA. You really have a tough time just keeping track of the technical details of the project. Budgetary issues are easiest handled with large block line items without any kind of detailed itemization of expenses.
NASA is not the only government agency that has been the victim of contractor fraud and abuse. It is now and has been in the past much more prevalent in the DoD.
As far as employee abuse, any large organization is going to have that problem. There is a lot of freedom in the NASA environment and culture so abuse will naturally happen. I remember shortly after coming on board another engineer referring to "G-jobs". I came to find out that these were things like using NASA machine shops and laboratories for personal projects like building a home satellite dish and stuff. The more cool toys you have available at work the grander the abuse will sound. The article really makes it sound awful, but it really isn't anything new and the benefits gained from the money spent on NASA far outweigh any losses due to abuse.
The World Loves Arrogance (Score:1)
Steal $100M, you're a captain of industry
and a corporate hero.
On the bright side... (Score:2)
Woo hoo! The Pimpshiz name is finally available again. Now how do I change my