The Pentagon’s $52k trash can

This is a repeating pattern. See also the $10k toilet seat:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/capitalbusiness/the-...

Even from this article we see a pattern:

> In 2020, the Pentagon paid Boeing over $200,000 for four of the trash cans, translating to roughly $51,606 per unit. In a 2021 contract, the company charged $36,640 each for 11 trash containers, resulting in a total cost of more than $400,000. The apparent overcharge cost taxpayers an extra $600,000 between the two contracts.

> In another case, Lockheed Martin hiked the price of an electrical conduit for the P-3 plane as much as 14 fold, costing the Pentagon an additional $133,000 between 2008 and 2015.

> Jamaica Bearings — a company that distributes parts manufactured by other firms — sold the Department of Defense 13 radio filters that had once cost $350 each for nearly $49,000 per unit in 2022. The apparent markup cost taxpayers more than $600,000 in extra fees.

How about your welds? One guy, so yours saying he inspected his own work and no sign-off?!

You gonna retain those records? ASA-100, Distributor Quality System Standard, paragraph 12: “The distributor shall maintain documentation of traceability for at least 7 years…

Here is a small non-exhaustive list I found of what you need:

     Did your shipment meet all the customer’s requirements? Note that this extends to more than just PN, QTY and ship-to. Failure to read and heed those pesky T&Cs (the Terms and Conditions on a typical PO or RO) is a frequent NCR.
    Who signed your C of C/Material Cert? Are they authorized to do so (cross checked to the Roster)?
    Where was the part obtained from? Are they on the Approved Suppliers List?
    Did you send the part to a repair station/AMO? Are they on the Approved Suppliers List?
    Whomever you claim to have trace to, is the chain of custody acceptably documented?
    Are part numbers, serial numbers, and condition in harmony?
    If there were any deviations from what the customer required, was there reasonable documentation in the record showing the customer’s acceptance of the deviation? 

Anyway, good luck with your metal shop business and running parts through the folder-thingy. Please bear in mind that the link I provided is just a small look at the regulations that govern Civil Aircraft and that Mil-Spec is an entirely different beast, but I am sure you know that already!

> In 2020, the Pentagon paid Boeing over $200,000 for four of the trash cans, translating to roughly $51,606 per unit. In a 2021 contract, the company charged $36,640 each for 11 trash containers, resulting in a total cost of more than $400,000. The apparent overcharge cost taxpayers an extra $600,000 between the two contracts.

> In another case, Lockheed Martin hiked the price of an electrical conduit for the P-3 plane as much as 14 fold, costing the Pentagon an additional $133,000 between 2008 and 2015.

> Jamaica Bearings — a company that distributes parts manufactured by other firms — sold the Department of Defense 13 radio filters that had once cost $350 each for nearly $49,000 per unit in 2022. The apparent markup cost taxpayers more than $600,000 in extra fees.

(2018) $10k toilet seat: https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/capitalbusiness/the-...

> U.S. Air Force paid about $10,000 each to replace toilet seat covers on the C-5 Galaxy, a Vietnam-era military cargo plane that is still in service, at least three times and as recently as last year.

(1985) $34,560 for 54 toilet covers ($640 each) by Lockheed: https://web.archive.org/web/20081017195946/http://www.time.c...

> President Ronald Reagan held a televised news conference in 1987, where he held up one of these shrouds and stated: "We didn't buy any $600 toilet seat. We bought a $600 molded plastic cover for the entire toilet system."

(1983) $435 hammer (supposedly an accounting error): https://sci-hub.se/https://www.jstor.org/stable/41635361

> Questioning the $435 cost, the chief petty officer made agency inquiries. This led to several agency investigations and an audit conducted by the Naval Audit Service, which determined that the Gould contract contained "excess costs of about $729,000." The Pentagon responded by issuing a public announcement that Gould had overcharged the Navy and that not only was the DoD seeking immediate repayment from Gould, but also that the DoD needed to make "major changes" in the way it procured spare parts. Although Gould believed that the Navy's audit was flawed, it agreed to make a good faith repayment of $84,000 in August 1983 to appease the DoD.

> About half of the Biden administration’s $842 billion Pentagon budget request goes to contractors. In 2022, roughly 30 percent of military spending went to the “big five” weapons makers, which include Raytheon, Boeing, Lockheed Martin, General Dynamics, and Northrop Grumman.