Federal auditors say the prime contractor on a $1 billion technology contract to improve the nation's transportation security system overbilled taxpayers for as much as 171,000 hours' worth of labor and overtime by charging up to $131 an hour for employees who were paid less than half that amount.
Three years ago, the Transportation Security Administration hired Unisys Corp. to create a state-of-the-art computer network linking thousands of federal employees at hundreds of airports to the TSA's high-tech security centers.
The project is costing more than double the anticipated amount per month, and the network is far from complete -- nearly half of the nation's airports have yet to be upgraded. Government officials said last week that the initial $1 billion contract ceiling was only a starting point for the project, which they recently said could end up costing $3 billion.
Double the cost, half the work done. Almost sounds like Halliburton.
Oh, guess which party Unisys is a donor to? Yep...the GOP.
This may not be "pork" spending by definition, but this is the sort of crap that costs us just as much. This is in the billions, and there's half the work left to do...and by "in the billions" I mean in overages.
Companies need to be held to contracts they make...if it's made for $X, then the government pays $X, and the company delivers what is promised. If the costs run over, they should take it out of their profit margin. And learn how to do business better. These companies do this because they know they can...they will get paid. There's no incentive for doing it under/at the agreed price, because the government will pay them more just to get it done.
It's a "fleecing of America", as the news often says. It's costing us billions. It is on par with pork barrel spending, if you look at companies like this and Halliburton, and others.
Porkbusters
Corruption
Republicans
Halliburton
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