Word: gao
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...because a part had corroded. The Missile Defense Agency penalized the Boeing Co., the system's developer, $107 million for the string of snafus. Pentagon audits also slammed Raytheon Corp., which builds the $40 million interceptor, for shoddy work. "The contractor cannot build a consistent and reliable product," the GAO said in a March report...
...Government Accountability Office (GAO), the auditing arm of Congress, agrees. "A second supplier could be greater assurance of a steady supply of goods, even if one site were disrupted by a strike, natural disaster, bankruptcy or terrorist attack," GAO investigators wrote...
...First, there's the provision that only companies that are [at least] 90% American-owned can bid," he says. "We don't allow that for anything else, not even defense." The Secret Service insists that money must be produced and printed within the U.S. to maintain security, but the GAO found no reason to bar foreign companies from making currency if they do so on U.S. soil. "Then, there's the four-year contract," Kolbe continues. "What company, with the capitalization costs it takes to get into this business, can take on such a financial burden...
Kolbe is convinced that the government could get a better price with more competition. Another GAO report, written in 1998, bolsters Kolbe's stance. It found that in at least 13 negotiations with Crane, agency practices have caused "the government to pay more for currency paper than it should have...
...contract a square deal, given the exacting specifications. "Any additional costs come from our need for the highest, most modern security technology," he says. And he has his own powerful allies in Congress, notably Massachusetts Senators John Kerry and Ted Kennedy, who have parried both Kolbe and the GAO...