Investigators: Corps skirted rules with MRAP

[unhappycamper]

Marines assigned to the 1st Marine Logistics Group put a Cougar H 4x4 mine-resistant, ambush-protected (MRAP) vehicle to the test on an off-road course, during a demonstration at Camp Taqaddum, Iraq.


Investigators: Corps skirted rules with MRAP
By Dan Lamothe - Staff writer
Posted : Thursday Oct 15, 2009 14:22:00 EDT

A Defense Department investigation has found that Marine officials failed to ensure fair prices were paid during a 2007 push to send thousands more mine-resistant vehicles to Iraq but effectively sped up deliveries in the process.

Marine Corps Systems Command, which oversaw the Pentagon’s multibillion-dollar development of Mine-Resistant Ambush Protected vehicles, “did not properly determine that contract prices were fair and reasonable” when awarding nine contracts for MRAPs in January 2007, according to a report published by the Pentagon’s inspector general. Marine officials also did not seek volume discounts that commonly come with large orders, resulting in a possible loss of $45.6 million in savings, IG investigators said.

The 70-page report, dated Jan. 29, was withheld from the public when published and labeled “For Official Use Only.” Marine Corps Times obtained it through the Freedom of Information Act, with the Defense Department redacting some details, including specifics about contract negotiations.

The report outlines problems that have surfaced in other audits of the MRAP program, such as the likelihood that maintenance and sustainability for the trucks will be more costly and complicated because the Corps awarded contracts to multiple manufacturers using different designs as it sought to speed fielding. But it also plumbs a layer deeper, saying that although proposed prices for smaller Category-I MRAPs ranged from $306,000 to nearly $1.1 million, an MRAP program official committed the government to the purchase without analyzing whether the cost of the more expensive vehicles was worthwhile.

~snip~

Unit prices provided by each company during negotiations were redacted from the report.


Rest of article at: http://marinecorpstimes.com/news/2009/10/marine_mrap_101509w/

[westerebus]

1. Let's see..

Getting a proposal for equipment.....some part of a billion dollars

Getting a mock up of equipment......a billion point two give or take three lawyer's

Getting a test of said equipment....a billion point six plus two grades up at the pentagon

Getting it built....................Multi billion point something and a service award

Getting the grunt's some badly needed protection........PRICELESS