How to Blow $700 Billion

What’s hiding behind those trillions in ‘plugs’? To experts in and out of the military, it could be almost anything:

Double-Billing

An alarmingly simple scheme. As Andy the Air Force accountant puts it, “A contractor accidentally invoices the military twice. It gets paid twice.” For example, one company got paid in full for delivering just 28 percent of a lug-nut contract; or the Swiss contractor that supposedly overbilled by $757 million to supply the troops in Afghanistan.

Bribery

In one of the worst military scandals in recent history, a contractor called “Fat Leon

ard” reportedly bribed Navy officials with prostitutes and more than $500,000 in order to steer Navy boats to his portside service centers, where he systematically overbilled taxpayers. The 350-pound grifter got more than $200 million in Navy contracts.

Theft and Loss

On paper, the military can lose track of even big things — like 39 Black Hawk

helicopters. But Andy thinks if independent analysts get to actually count the stuff that’s supposed to be sitting in depots, this will be the “showstopper” of the entire audit, revealing the true extent of the corruption and/or disorganization in the military.

Misappropriation

There have been multiple cases involving officials taking advantage of flaws in the

Pentagon’s system over the years. One

Air Force sergeant ended up sending 17 checks worth $436,684 to a co-conspirator. A civilian secretary bilked the Air Force out of $1.4 million for more than a decade before anyone noticed.

If It Ain’t Broke

The military’s inventory has reparables and consumables. A “consumable” is a disposable item like a bullet. Many of the military’s “reparables” must be sent back to the original contractor, where the part could be replaced. So why fix the part at all? One

F-35 repair depot found 68 percent of parts marked for repair did not need fixing.

Out of Sight

The military has more than 800 bases in at least 80 countries. The more distant and dangerous the locale, the harder the accounting. The IG for Afghanistan found $15 billion in waste. Trump has floated replacing troops with contractors — an idea that reportedly came from Erik Prince, founder of the security firm once known as Blackwater.