Not in the pages of Seattle’s two major dailies, anyway.
When the Government Accountability Office (GAO) decided this spring that Boeing’s appeal of the Air Force award of a tanker contract to a rival had merit, the P-I was so giddy that it published the GAO’s entire press release.
But last week, when the GAO released a report finding that Boeing and other military contractors, along with Pentagon officials, had illegally interfered with government auditors investigating performance and cost of weapons systems — and with the GAO’s investigation of those investigations — and again yesterday, when Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-MO) took to the floor of the Senate calling the report “what could be the biggest auditing scandal in the history of this town,” and calling for “firings by nightfall,” there has not been a word of it in local media.
So you’ll have to read about it here:
Among the findings of the report:
* The Defense Contract Audit Agency (DCAA) resident auditor made an agreement with an unnamed aerospace contractor (determined to be Boeing based on the facts contained in the report), one of the five largest government defense contractors, that “limited the scope” of the audit and would allow the contractor to correct problems that were found before the final audit opinion was issued.
* The resident auditor replaced uncooperative auditors and intimidated others into making unsubstantiated assessments that benefited contractors at the expense of the government.
* Supervisors assigned complex auditing tasks to underqualified subordinates, resulting in incomplete audits.
* DCAA officials threatened staff members with retaliation for speaking with GAO investigators.
* The director of a cost-estimating system for a major defense contractor threatened the DCAA he would “escalate” the issue “to the highest level possible” in the government and within the company in question if the DCAA would not green-light the billing system it identified as problematic.
* The DCAA failed to revisit contracts that were negotiated by a corrupt (and later convicted) Air Force official.
* Mistakes, incompetence or intentional deception by the DCAA has essentially built in defective price-estimating systems that may artificially inflate contract estimates for years to come.
McCaskill, on the floor of the Senate yesterday:
I will guarantee you, as auditors around the country learn about this, they’re going to have disbelief and raw anger that this agency has impugned the integrity of government auditors everywhere by these kinds of irresponsible actions…all this time that we have been wasting hundreds of billions of dollars [in Iraq], the fox was in the chicken coop.”
So why is a story about a major government corruption scandal — one that involves our (former) hometown heroes — getting no local coverage? Or, put another way, how is it that when the news is unflattering for the Mariners, local media can be honest about it — but not when the issues are rather more substantive?
Because this town needs Boeing’s 60,000 jobs and because those paychecks go to merchants who buy ads in local newspapers.
Well, not knowing the details (and not having time to investigate them carefully right now), I’m not going to take sides between Boeing and the auditors right now.
Sometimes auditors can be unreasonable, I’ve dealt with a few, and in those cases while you try to be cooperative, you sometimes have to push back, or talk to their supervisors. That kind of give-and-take is to be expected in a big audit, it doesn’t necessarily indicate any malfeasance. In private industry, a lot of auditors are accounting/finance grads from major universities who spend their first five years or so on audit assignments for big accounting firms, with little real-life business experience. (“Uh, no, we don’t have original invoices, we switched to data transmission of invoice data about ten years ago – I can print you a copy if you want”).
I suspect the government auditors are a lot more experienced, however – but I haven’t had to deal with them, myself.
On the other hand, government audits of contractors should be fair, thorough, and free from political influence. It’s the only way to safegaurd the taxpayer’s money. If Boeing ends up being among the ones having to pay the piper in the end, so be it.
I wonder if Halliburton/KKR/Blackwater are also having audit problems?
McCain wants the hated French to build our Air Force tankers. I’ll bet he puts mustard on his Al Qaeda Fries, too.
[Deleted – Off topic]
Were these the same issues that John McCain highlighted several months ago when he turned a skeptical eye to Boeing, or are they new charges?
Roger, there’s an open thread below this to go off on tangents…
I don’t see anything in the quotes provided in this post that have anything at all to do with Boeing. Lots of problems with the DCAA it appears, but that’s not Boeing’s problem.
Seven words for you.
Norm Dicks big bucket of political debauchery.
Seven if you don’t count the first four..or the last eleven, oh fuck it.
@6 You should be ashamed of yourself for smacking around a poor defenseless furry pink-eared bunny like that!
I wonder if McCain plans to have Osama bin Laden’s picture painted on those French airplanes if he becomes president. I’m not saying he will, just wondering that’s all.
I bet McCain called both the PI and the Times and told them not to publish anything. He probably realized that he got so much trouble on this board (by people who shoule know and are the experts on everything) about his alleged interference with the tanker deal. That tought him a very important lesson…listen to the people her because they speak for the majority and know it all. Right Roger ?
So he decided to hush it up…and let Boeing look good for a change.
And with the much improved business climate in WA (see early post)…Boeing might actually want to come back soon. Better climate, support by the local papers…what else can they want.
:-)
No – dutch and other idiots – McCain and his lobbyist buddies on the campaign staff lobbied and pushed for the tamnker deal – this is a different defense contract. the GAO report vindicated Boeing and shows that the AF did not follow their own rules and changed the rules after the game started.
Boeing was guilty of improper influence before (in the first iteration of the contract) – but the tanker deal was tainted and McCain was supporting his lobbyist friends and the French – get it straight.
@12 “get it straight”
Good luck with that. Remember, you’re talking to Dutch. A dim bulb, even by troll standards, and so obviously as drunk as a skunk on this beautiful Friday afternoon.
LM not even 60 days ago got hit by the GAO publicly for what you are alleging Boeing did.
LM did not comply with earn value rules nor cost control rules and blocked GAO auditors. It seems to me some like to bag on Boeing as a default.
Guys, you’re being bit by a bug in SiteMeter’s code that’s preventing all IE users from viewing your site. It’s an improvement, IMO, but I thought you might want to fix it (by removing the SiteMeter tracking code).
http://www.oneprojectcloser.co.....st-1-2008/
Sounds to me like the auditors may be morons.
15 – Get Firefox – IE dumbasses!!!
Sorry I couldn’t resist.
Hello it is me again…when I worked at the Boeing company we were 230,000 strong not including vendors IN Washington alone Gary Lock threw tat away for us forever! Chrissy is of the same breed! Hate tu use the lib slant but it is time for a change.
CNR, Steve…I guess tongue n cheek is lost on you idiots….jeeze
Always walk in lockstep with you master…don’t think just…spew
Whatever happens, we can all agree that it’s going to be blamed on bush.
Just like it’s bush’s fault that obama decided to drill for oil.
#6. Lee spews:
Roger, there’s an open thread below this to go off on tangents…
I never thought an ex-employee of boeing [on topic] would ever censor the rabbit.
@19 –
That was tongue in cheek? I thought it was just muddled thinking – it wasn’t even sarcastic or funny. Try being clever instead of stupid – and maybe there will be something to appreciate – what you wrote was just sophmoric.
Stamm the idiot is starting to get it – eight years of Bush have destroyed the economy, the reputation of the US and most of the government from the so-called Justice dept., to the EPA and FDA – not to mention the new “homeland security” people and FEMA – which used to work before Bush hired cronies and lackeys to run it.
Yes – Stamm is right – Bush has screwed up most everything. Great special last night on the republican triumvirate of Abramoff, Reed and Norquist – how they were all buddies in the college young republicans and how they, Tom DeLay and Rove screwed up our government and bribed their way into history by helping to keep slave labor conditions in the Mariana’s, protect Indian gambling and help Russian mobsters and oil execs get IMF funds. If you follow the money it turns out the real republican platform was slave labor, forced abortions, gambling and propping up Russian oil tycoons. Who knew?