Joined: 06-14-2006 Posts: 28,811 |
gringococolo wrote:About the $600 for a hammer garbage....
If any of you actually made purchases for the government you would understand how this is possible. I have made probably close to $10,000,000 dollars in purchases for the federal government, or had a large hand in the procurement of the big $$ items.
That being said, it is very hard to spend uncle sam's money.
You have to rotate vendors, you can't just buy from the cheapest source because of the many requirements (GSA prefered, etc..) For me to purchase a simple pair of binoculars I had to provide a page of justification as to why I was buying the CHEAPEST ones on the internet.
When you start into the mess of buying contractors, it get worse.
The govt isn't a business. When the end of the year comes you HAVE TO SPEND your budget. The budget is Federal Law, you can't save money through the year and give it back to the taxpayer. There is no budget surplus that is not spent because you would have to REPEAL the law that signed the budget in the foist place.
Now back to the hammer. So lets say I did a outstanding job of using my annual budget of $76,564 dollars (BTW I had to project that amount 5 years in advance, thus adding to the waste because I cant run my [insert govt workplace] if I project short on my annual budget). I have spent $75,872.80, leaving me $691.20. I am going to find the most expensive hammer on the GSA website, make ONE govt purchase order and be done with it. The alternative is to do endless paperwork to put the money in another pool to be spent
It's much more a pain in the ass than that, but it isn't that indivuduals are intent on wasting money. The system is set up for failure, mostly by legislated fairness principals and anti-scamming principals.
I wish I didn't waste my time typing this. I am glad I do not procure for the govt anymore either, I never with to do that again. You know - and I just LOVE to point this out - it was Michigan's Carl Levin (D) that made the big stink about $500.00 hammers, and $200.00 toilet seats. And, essentially, what you're saying is that he's completely full of crap when he gets outraged about this kind of spending...because he's essentially the guy who is forcing your to spend your budget.
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