Boeing again

I realized that I really am old when I was telling one of my kids that  Boeing and McDonnell-Douglas ruled the skies. Why? Because they pretty much made GREAT product, led the way in aviation (especially commercial aviation) and generally whatever they made, one of those two was the best in class. Nowadays the old M-D is owned by Boeing, so it’s one and the same.

As we know, Boeing has been in the news lately. A lot. Not for good reasons, either – notably the 737-Max (heck, some of the REGULAR 737s) and a host of other planes have had ‘incidents’ – and in commercial flights, incidents are bad. As in worse than stealing from Jobu bad.

I will say, that, by and large air travel, while horribly obnoxious courtesy of TSA and so many air passengers aspiring to act like the lowest rent Greyhound patrons, in one sense has improved markedly. When was the last time you heard of a domestic airline crash? Take your time….then realize that back in the 60’s and 70’s they were common. Try 1960 – 9 US planes alone, another 14 went down overseas. In one year.

But Boeing’s quality control has taken a hit…their ISO9001 is probably worth about .001 now – hell, they can’t even get their own space folks back due to problems in their new-and-better space Starliner – they are gonna have to lift a spacesuited thumb to hitch a ride with SpaceX.  Yeah, the company that was famous for great stuff has problems.

But lest we forget, Boeing used to be known for other things, too. And one of the longest lasting – gouging the dog-snot out of the government for its parts. And that, boys and girls, is where we are today. Remember $1600 toilet seat lids and $900 hammers? They’re baaaccckk…..a recent audit by DOD says:

“The Air Force did not always pay reasonable prices for C?17 spare parts, in accordance with the Federal Acquisition Regulation, such as the lavatory soap dispenser, which was a 7,943?percent markup or more than 80 times the commercially available cost,” the report says.

The audit specifically looked at reimbursement rates for 46 different spare parts. It found that:

• The government paid a “fair and reasonable” $20 million for 9 of them
• The government couldn’t figure out whether it paid a “fair and reasonable” $22 million for 25 of them
• The government paid a not-fair-and-reasonable $4.3 million for 9 of them   Quartz

Boeing says the dispenser on the right is inadequate for military specs. For a soap dispencer? I can see a difference – that little hose clamp above the reservoir. Surely that is worth $790 of $800 for a soap dispenser?

The Office of Inspector General attributes the taxpayer-funded oversights to a combination of issues. Among these, auditors contend USAF failed to validate contracts’ data accuracy, keep tabs on any price increases after contract execution, and review invoices before paying Boeing.

“In addition, the DoD OIG found that the DoD did not require the contracting officer to verify the accuracy of the bill of materials before negotiation or to review invoices for allowable, allocable, and reasonable costs before payment,” representatives added in an October 29th press release. PopSci

Sounds like the Air Force fornicated Fido…but Boeing happily exploited it.

Category: "Your Tax Dollars At Work", Air Force