Multi-million Dollar Parts Fraud Uncovered

Someone needs to be fired over this:

A small South Carolina parts supplier collected about $20.5 million over six years from the Pentagon for fraudulent shipping costs, including $998,798 for sending two 19-cent washers to an Army base in Texas, U.S. officials said.

The company also billed and was paid $455,009 to ship three machine screws costing $1.31 each to Marines in Habbaniyah, Iraq, and $293,451 to ship an 89-cent split washer to Patrick Air Force Base in Cape Canaveral, Florida, Pentagon records show.

The owners of C&D Distributors in Lexington, South Carolina — twin sisters — exploited a flaw in an automated Defense Department purchasing system: bills for shipping to combat areas or U.S. bases that were labeled “priority” were usually paid automatically, said Cynthia Stroot, a Pentagon investigator. [Tony Capaccio – Bloomberg]

First of all, it is disgusting that people would rip off the military at a time soldiers are at war dieing every day and need every dime available to support them.  Secondly, this is a huge oversight error because this had been going on since 2000 without anyone noticing.  Whoever was over responsible for oversight of this system should be held accountable. 

Fortunately the Army is getting their money back and audited all the shipping records in this system and tracked down a few more frauds.  One positive thing to take out of all this is that somebody did catch it and those responsible for the fraud were tried and convicted with the military getting their money back.