Govt corruption.

[Hetzer]

This is the kind of criminal corruption I've talked of before. It's why the NHS, for example, costs billions of pounds more than it should to run.

The Ministry of Defence has paid £22.51 for a lightbulb worth 65p and £103 for steel screws worth around £2.60, it has emerged.

The high price for the 100W lightbulbs represents a markup of 3,000 per cent on the standard retail price.

A ten-day old invoice for the bulb, from supplier FEL Avionics, was published by The Sun.

The Private Finance Initiative (PFI) invoices were leaked by a soldier working in stores in the UK who described the waste as "criminal" and said the money involved was "like Monopoly money".

"You're talking about a fortune for these bulbs. If I order 100, that's over two grand. But you can pick them up for 65p each, the exact same ones," he said.

Defence Secretary Liam Fox told The Sun: "We are already tackling the procurement problems we inherited head-on.

"When money is tight and we need to protect the front line, waste is inexcusable."

An MoD spokesman said the ministry was looking at existing contracts to "ensure value for money".

The Ministry has also had to pay over £150,000 to pulp the entire first print run of a book it had already cleared following a four-month security review process.

The Ministry said that information was found "at a late stage" in the book Dead Men Risen, by Toby Harnden, which could have damaged national security and put members of the armed forces at risk.

In a statement the MoD said: "Faced with the stark choice between compromising the security of members of the armed forces and their families and making a payment to the publisher for amendments to a book which had already been printed, MoD had little option but to negotiate a settlement. The MoD is grateful for the cooperation Quercus and Toby Harnden have shown in this matter."

04 March 2011

These aren't accidents, these are back-handers in pockets.
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"There's the horizon! Ride hard, ride fast and cut down all who stand in your way!"

[Chalky.]

Do be quiet you whining cunt.

[Chalky.]

To further my argument...

You've got the sun newspaper, not exactly reknown for its quality reporting, paying some little scrote for a story.

Yes, if he orders 100 it'll cost a lot.

BUT

"It was a precision-made lamp filament for the Watchman radar. The MoD purchases about five per year."

Not some fucking Tesco lightbulb.

[Hetzer]

[bikertomm]

My theory is that the whole world basically just blags their way through life.
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07' Honda Hornet now full powaah! My guide on performing an oil change!

[Chalky.]

Oh, you've given me a negative rating?

You hypocritical, karma whining, pathetic excuse for a man.

[Hetzer]

[dogbot]

[Suntan Sid]

It’s been going on for years and is one of the reasons why your council tax is continually going up.

Here’s how it works, on the engineering side of things.
Most council/local authority, (LA), services have to go out to tender, the council has a list of approved contractors who can tender for work, if the council or LA have a direct labour organisation, (DLO), they can tender for the work as well. The contractors are not supposed to collude on the price of their respective tenders. The, sealed, tenders cannot be opened until a given date.

Guess what happens, the contractors fix the price, so they can spread the work out amongst themselves. They will always undercut the DLO, if there is one, and make a profit by cutting corners wherever possible. Which means the LA has to pay people to fix the, crap, work they’ve been doing.

If the LA does not have a DLO, it’s happy days for the contractors. They will simply set a vastly inflated price for the work and the LA is bound to accept the best bid. They make sure the work is spread around amongst them and laugh all the way to the bank after raping the public coffers.

I’ll give you an example, a few years ago, the department I worked for needed two weeks work doing. We put the job out to tender and received the bids. We also calculated how much it would cost to do the work “in house”, our calculations had to include the cost of hiring three replacement workers to cover for the employees who would be working the job. The job was some distance from the depot so we included two weeks’ worth of hotel accommodation for three men. The lowest bid we received for the job was more than double the cost we estimated. That, folks, is how your council tax is spent and, quite frankly, that is bleedin’ criminal!

The next time some gobshite of a politician tells you the private sector does a better job, just think on. These leeches can, legally, extort your council tax from the public coffers and because business has been greasing politicians for decades there’s absolutely sod all you can do about it!

[Hetzer]

[Chalky.]

The Sun and BBC radio 1.

Cracking citations there.

[Scotsman37]

What causes corruption is due to politicians/civil servants that take kick backs (all expenses paid holiday/new home, etc) from companies that put in an offer to construct something for a government project. Or projects dogged with delays and mounting costs!

ex. A consultant marine engineer called in to be a consultant to the consultant appointed by the joint board of a company & civil servants to over see the contract that requires an underground military bunker complex to be extended further under the mountain side. So what I was advised is that a decision for just a very tiny alteration to the plan requires the decision to go up to the joint board which in theory should only take say a day at the most, but it takes nearly 3 weeks or more to come back with a decision which in turn cost the government a further 3 weeks worth of delays which causes knock back on other ongoing projects waiting for that one to be completed.

Corruption is rife because they don't care because it's public money that funds the project!

[Hetzer]

[fire]

I wish I owned FEL Avionics.

Sad thing is, If this is going on then theres likely to be over payment at high end supplies as well. Where as only the low end supplies are getting the media attention. ..... That or i'm a conspiracy theorist, crazy and lacking intelligent intuition.
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Write off! Honda NSR150 RR ('01) - Sold Cagiva Mito Evolution ('00) - Sold Honda NSR125 ('01) - Current Gasgas TXT 250 ('98) - Sold Kawasaki Z750 ('10) - Write off! Yamaha FZ1 ('09) - Current Ducati Streetfighter 848 ('14)

[Hetzer]

[JonB]

One sad thing is that the only body in the UK that investigates this flagrant price fixing is the OFT, yet for once they are powerless to protect their (the governments) own interests. It is truly ironic.
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Be careful whose advice you buy, but, be patient with those who supply it. Advice is a form of nostalgia, dispensing it is a way of fishing the past from the disposal, wiping it off, painting over the ugly parts and recycling it for more than it?s worth.

[D O G]

I once audited a defence contractor who made specialist optical equipment. It was a small company, family owned, with less than 25 employees. It's net profit was in the region of 20% - which is astonishingly good.

That was after the massive salaries to the family members had been paid - the top guy took over £450k - largest salary I've ever seen in a business. The top finance guy was getting £130k, and could barely put together a decent spreadsheet.

They were absolutely raking it in - but yet were subject to audit by the MoD to ensure that their profits were appropriate. Fuck knows what the MoD think inappropriate profits would be.