Cold Fusion38
SUPER GENIUS
- Thread starter
- #61
This is a prime example, of Government doing things better. Billions wasted and walked away with, nobody taking responsibility, red flags and reason being ignored, and we continue to pay for it. Health Care will probably turn out worse, with us sneaking over the border to Mexico, and them building fences. I'm gonna check the Coast Guard Site for more on this.
This is the fleecing of America, said Anthony DArmiento, a systems engineer who has worked for Northrop and the Coast Guard on the project. It is the worst contract arrangement Ive seen in all my 20 plus years in naval engineering.
Insufficient oversight by the Coast Guard resulted in the service buying some equipment it did not want and ignoring repeated warnings from its own engineers that the boats and ships were poorly designed and perhaps unsafe, the agency acknowledged. The Deepwater programs few Congressional skeptics were outmatched by lawmakers who became enthusiastic supporters, mobilized by an aggressive lobbying campaign financed by Lockheed and Northrop.
And the contractors failed to fulfill their obligation to make sure the government got the best price, frequently steering work to their subsidiaries or business partners instead of competitors, according to government auditors and people affiliated with the program.
Even some of the smaller Deepwater projects raise questions about management. The radios placed in small, open boats were not waterproof and immediately shorted out, for example. Electronics equipment costing millions of dollars is still being installed in the new cutter, even though it will be ripped out because the Coast Guard does not want it. An order of eight small, inflatable boats cost an extra half-million dollars because the purchase passed through four layers of contractors.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/09/us/09ship.html?_r=2
Pretty nasty stuff huh?