politics

@Matt Stoller on real WASTE in U.S. spending: The Collusion Tax: There are plenty of studies showing massive government waste, but it’s NOT in the Federal workforce. It’s in procurement, the place where government buys from the private sector, everything from pencils to software to nuclear submarines.

The OECD says 1/5 of the cost is STOLEN by contractors through bid rigging, the so-called “Collusion tax.” Collusion is when contractors get together in groups and conspire to reduce their bids so that the government overpays for goods and services. According to the OECD, “The elimination of bid rigging could help reduce procurement prices by 20% or more.”

If you take $750 billion, just in Federal procurement spending, that’s $150 billion a year of pure overpayment, due to this ONE form of crime. Earlier this year the Government Accountability Office published a report on fraud, showing the government loses between $233 billion to $521 billion on fraud.”

This is what dumb and dumber should be working on…