British Petroleum and Alaska (work, house, contractor)

[User 2]

Have you seen the 'new' Bush plan to get tough on federal contract fraud?

I ran across a database of federal contract fraud.

The Project on Government Oversight (POGO)

Top Fifty abusers:

Home - Federal Contractor Misconduct Database - POGO

Oil companies get a lot of federal contracts. They get busted for fraudulent practices pretty often too.

BP comes in at a bit over a billion dollars in 'misconduct' fines over 17 different instances of 'misconduct'.

Who knows what all those violations really cost us in terms of lost revenue, lost royalties, etc....

BP is listed for failure to report hazardous waste spills, under-reporting royalty payments owed, violations of workplace safety, and air quality violations, among others.

The latest BP bust:

Contractor Case - Federal Contractor Misconduct Database - POGO

Many of these 'violations' and fraud weren't 'self-reported' as required by current law, and many of these instances resulted in federal charges being filed and resulted in criminal felony convictions.

As we all know, some of these 'criminal violations' happen with some frequency in Alaska.

It's really eye opening to see that these criminal acts continue over a long period of time, they defraud us, they pay a pittance in fines, then they get another contract, (usually worth many times more than the fines), ..and the next thing you know, they commit these same kinds of criminal acts again.

Over and over again......

(voluntary self-reporting as a method of policing of these contracts never was logical, it's like asking a repeat offender to promise not to do anything illegal ever again, and if he does, he's supposedly to volunteer to turn himself in? Hah......)

So if Bush has finally 'seen the light' and he's really going to push some new laws to crack down on federal contract fraud, that's good news...

Personally, I think we ought to have a 'zero tolerance policy' in state and federal contracting law.

If a corporation is busted and convicted, they shouldn't get a chance to defraud us ever again.

As to Bush's new 'crackdown', we will see...... I'll have to see conviction rates, not just promises from a lame duck who ignored the problem for 7 years.....
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.......oh, I almost forgot, .....that new crackdown by Bush?

It doesn't apply to any overseas federal contracts, ......all that fraud continues as always, and the new 'crackdown' language exempts overseas contracts from any of the proposed changes.

The criminal war profiteering cronies of Bush are lighting up some big old cigars tonight......
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[User 3]

Speaking of a fraud....he's in our White House

[rotorhead]

Fraud is pretty much a game of definitions. I suspect that the main reason why the overseas operations are excempt is that pretty much every other country in the world considers fraud to be business as usual...be it bribes, kickbacks, commissions, you name it.

Keep in mind that in many countries, you can actually write off payola and most bribes as legitimate business expenses. In some ways our puritan insistance on squeaky-clean business operation actually puts US companies at a considerable competitive disadvantage.

Am I advocating the legalization of huge corporations ripping off the govt.?...of course not. I am merely pointing out that the US is largely the exception to the rule in matters of basic honesty in business dealings.

[User 2]

Originally Posted by rotorhead

......the US is largely the exception to the rule in matters of basic honesty in business dealings.

Funniest thing I've heard......

(......well, for today anyway, and even then, ......it's still early.)
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[RAMFEB31]

Poor old Bush. He get blame for everything. Perhaps, if we get Hilliary next term, we would be in utopia. Just think, we would get 2 prez for the price of one. Of course, to keep Billy out of the way, she may hire lots of attractive interns.

[User 2]

...you can spot a Bush apologist from a mile away....
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