Word: inspectors
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...Force Base, showed astounding increases in the price of aircraft engine parts made by Pratt & Whitney: a turbine air seal for an F-111 fighter-bomber, for example, soared from $16 to $3,033.82 in one year. These findings touched off a broader study by the Pentagon's inspector general's office. Last week a leak of the resulting draft concluded that Air Force and Navy purchasing practices encourage exorbitant price increases on aircraft engine spares...
...inspector general examined price increases from 1980 through 1982 for nearly 15,000 aircraft engine parts and discovered about 65% of the prices had risen by more than 50%; 4,000 items had ballooned by more than 500% and some by more than 1,000%. A gear-and-pinion assembly supplied by Bendix Corp. jumped from $31.59 to $546, a rise of 1,628%. A spare part from Britain's Rolls-Royce was marked up from $3.70 to $54.75, an increase of 1,380%. Inflation over this period...
Customs officials admit they lack the expertise to identify military parts that are illegal to export. An agent in Washington reveals that for two years one U.S. firm sent crates marked TRACTOR ENGINES from Boston to Iran. Even though the crates had been inspected, it took a new inspector with military experience to note that the engines were equipped with superchargers. They were replacements for the engines used in U.S.-built M-60 tanks...
Cooley, as unflappable as his name suggests, takes over the investigation with flak and authority. He receives admirable support from the one-eyed Inspector Marbeau of Castelnaudary, a Cyclops properly impressed to find that the San Franciscan knows la belle France like the back of his land. Author Gene Thompson also knows French history, terrain, customs and cuisine, and has created a series of suspects who are only too plausible. By the punch line, one wishes they could all have been guilty...
...stepped through the passport stamper's booth and up to the desk of the Immigration and Naturalization Service official, a sympathetic woman, for fingerprinting and more stamps. They carried their things (a portable tape player, a jar of noodles soaked in vinegar, bath slippers) past the Department of Agriculture inspector and out. The young Santiagos had never been to Los Angeles, let alone the U.S. And yet, as of last Thursday afternoon, they were here to stay...