In New Contracting Proposal, Pentagon is "The Good Guy"

By DANA LIEBELSON

A new proposal by the Pentagon to change the wording of a contracting statute could save taxpayers billions of dollars. Last week, the House decided not to vote on this proposal—but it’s not too late to stop the Senate from making the same mistake. Today in TIME’s Battleland blog, we discuss just why it’s so important to stop contractors from labeling certain items “commercial goods” when they’re never actually bought by the public.

From the article:

Raise your hand if you know someone who would buy such a massive aircraft, designed to ferry troops into war zones, for personal use. Anyone? Until 2006, the C-130J was labeled a commercial item—a decision the Department of Defense Office of Inspector General criticized in a 2004 report.

Unsurprisingly, only the Air Force bought them. But by using this loophole, Lockheed Martin, the aircraft’s manufacturer, was able to skirt contract-pricing transparency laws designed to protect the taxpayer. And of course, the aircraft wasn’t subjected to the price competition that exists in the real world, because no other company was trying to sell a massive military jet to either the Air Force or consumers.

This is an issue that POGO has been working on since 1999—it’s high-time that we stop defense contractors from getting away with this questionable practice.

Dana Liebelson is POGO’s Beth Daley Impact Fellow.

Follow @dliebelson

Photo via Flickr user Ranger BP