Since the terrorist attacks of 9/11, the one career move we all should have made was to become a defense contractor, specifically a no-bid defense contractor. Back in the pre 9/11 days, the Pentagon spent $50 billion dollars a year in no-bid contracts; 2010, $140 billion. Wired’s Danger Room blog writes that the percentage of total dollars of competed contracts keeps on falling. Now, there are some good reasons why non-competitive contracts need to be awarded, but when a practice gets so out-rightly abused, the policy will soon fail.
The consequence, according to those investigative agencies and commissions: wasted dollars, lower quality goods and services, and in some cases, outright fraud.