Re:The Pentagon’s $52,000 trash can
by Spooky23 on Friday June 23, 2023 @09:15AM
(#36446408)
That explanation doesn’t hold water.
The issue in government contracting is very simple. You need competitive procurement to ensure reasonableness of price. Period. In the 90s, we allowed major defense contractors to consolidate at the prime level and diversify at the subcontractor level.
So Lockheed Martin has some component of every system in 300 congressional districts - some little company is fabricating magical bolts to get congressional support.
So now these giant companies are all sole source vendors. Guess what happened to price?
The issue in government contracting is very simple. You need competitive procurement to ensure reasonableness of price. Period. In the 90s, we allowed major defense contractors to consolidate at the prime level and diversify at the subcontractor level.
So Lockheed Martin has some component of every system in 300 congressional districts - some little company is fabricating magical bolts to get congressional support.
So now these giant companies are all sole source vendors. Guess what happened to price?