Big Government Blows Fortune Storing Unused Steel for Border Fence
Judging by the prevalence of statists among this year’s dismal crop of presidential candidates, people must still believe that Big Government can allocate resources as effectively as the free market. They must not have heard about this:
U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), a division of the Department of Homeland Security, has spent about $9.8 million to store $44 million in steel that it bought but did not use to build fence along the U.S,-Mexico border, according to a report from the DHS Inspector General.
CPB has in storage about 27,000 tons of “extra steel” that could be used to extend the estimated 650 miles of fencing mandated by Congress along the approximately 2,000-mile long southwest border, according to the IG.
CPB’s incompetence goes beyond buying way too much steel and paying way too much to store it.
The agency “purchased steel based on an estimate before legally acquiring land or meeting international treaty obligations,” reads the IG report. “In addition, it did not provide effective contract oversight during the project: it paid invoices late, did not reconcile invoices to receiving documents, and did not perform a thorough review of the contractor’s selection of a higher-priced subcontractor or document the reasons for its approval of the subcontractor.”
“As a result, Customs and Border Protection purchased more steel than needed, incurred additional storage costs, paid interest on late payments, and approved a higher-priced subcontractor, resulting in additional expenditures of about $69 million that could have been put to better use,” said the IG report.
A private company run by morons of this caliber would only have to pay them half as much, but would quickly go out of business (unless of course it had connections in Washington and was therefore Too Big to Fail). But Big Government doesn’t have to worry about cash flow, since it can always borrow, expropriate, or print more. Even with our current leadership, the federal government might last for several years before the whole mess collapses.
On a tip from Bill T.
HOW ABOUT ALLOCATING DHS THAT MUCH LESS MONEY FOR NEXT YEARS BUDGET
That is one dumb bitch.
And I have to pay through the ass for Schedule 40 pipe. I’M SICK AND TIRED OF THIS THIEVERY!
“Oh well, good enough for Gubmint work.”
Fester really fucked that one up.
Trillions of taxpayer dollars worth of productivity vaporized over the last several decades (most of which during the last 10 years, especially the last 3)…
Hunker down, folks.
Incompetent would be too nice to describe this wretched man. I prefer blatantly evil.
Our Nation CANNOT survive with idiots in charge.
You prepping????
[...] Via Moon Battery LD_AddCustomAttr("AdOpt", "1"); LD_AddCustomAttr("Origin", "other"); LD_AddCustomAttr("theme_bg", "ffffff"); LD_AddCustomAttr("theme_border", "eeeeee"); LD_AddCustomAttr("theme_text", "555555"); LD_AddCustomAttr("theme_link", "2970A6"); LD_AddCustomAttr("theme_url", "c8c7c7"); LD_AddCustomAttr("LangId", "1"); LD_AddCustomAttr("Autotag", "business"); LD_AddCustomAttr("Autotag", "technology"); LD_AddCustomAttr("Autotag", "politics"); LD_AddCustomAttr("Tag", "government-waste"); LD_AddCustomAttr("Tag", "illegal-immigration"); LD_AddCustomAttr("Tag", "lack-of-border-security"); LD_AddCustomAttr("Tag", "obamas-plan-for-more-democrat-voters"); LD_AddSlot("wpcom_below_post"); LD_GetBids(); Share this:EmailFacebookPrintTwitterStumbleUponRedditDiggLike this:LikeBe the first to like this post. Categories: Government Waste, Illegal Immigration, lack of border security, Obama's plan for more democrat voters Comments (0) Trackbacks (0) Leave a comment Trackback [...]
Alzheimers. I recognize the facial expression.
“As a result, Customs and Border Protection purchased more steel than needed, incurred additional storage costs, paid interest on late payments, and approved a higher-priced subcontractor, resulting in additional expenditures of about $69 million that could have been put to better use,” said the IG report.”
And these people say they should be in charge of health care?
Maybe we should bring in Governor Palin to get this job done. It can’t be any harder than working with TransCanada-Alaska to build the pipeline stretching for 1,715 miles from Prudhoe Bay to Alberta Canada.
She has the experience and would definitely do a better job than Nappy.
Also, I wonder if that “Higher priced subcontractor” was a proper politically correct minority / female-owned entity?
Ok, so they spent $9.8 million of our money to STORE this stuff… how much fence could they actually have BUILT with that $9.8 million:
A) If they used union labor
B) If they banned unions from the job
C) If they hired Mexican day laborers with green cards or whatever (i.e. DOCUMENTED workers)
D) If they hired illegal aliens.
I strongly dislike the Marxist whose photo is associated with this story.