Pentagon Paid $999,798 to Ship Two 19-Cent Washers to Texas

[DeSwiss]

Pentagon Paid $999,798 to Ship Two 19-Cent Washers to Texas

Tony Capaccio
August 16, 2007



(Bloomberg) -- 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 a Texas base, 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.

C&D's fraudulent billing started in 2000, Stroot, the Defense Criminal Investigative Service's chief agent in Raleigh, North Carolina, said in an interview. ``As time went on they got more aggressive in the amounts they put in.''

http://news.yahoo.com/s/bloomberg/20070816/pl_bloomberg/ajkoyhuchw0m

*** - Shipping washers can be extremely tricky, you see? And the 19¢ variety of washer are the hardest to ship of all. Care has to be taken when packaging these things so that they don't get scratched and dinged. And if there's one thing that shows support for the troops more than anything, is the visage of a pristine, shiny washer without scratches and dings. Makes me get all choked up..... right here {pats wallet}.....