Submitted via IRC for TheMightyBuzzard
The Pentagon has generated almost $6 billion over the past seven years by charging the armed forces excessive prices for fuel and has used the money — called the “bishop’s fund” by some critics — to bolster mismanaged or underfunded military programs, documents show.
Since 2015, the Defense Department has tapped surpluses from its fuel accounts for $80 million to train Syrian rebels, $450 million to shore up a prescription-drug program riddled with fraud and $1.4 billion to cover unanticipated expenses from the war in Afghanistan, according to military accounting records.
The Pentagon has amassed the extra cash by billing the armed forces for fuel at rates often much higher — sometimes $1 per gallon or more — than what commercial airlines paid for jet fuel on the open market.
[...] The Defense Department is the largest single consumer of fuel in the world. Each year, it buys about 100 million barrels, or 4.2 billion gallons, of refined petroleum for its aircraft, warships, tanks and other machines.
[...] In a statement, the Pentagon acknowledged that it accumulated $5.6 billion in “enterprise gains” from fuel purchases between 2010 and 2016, but said the surplus was the result of falling oil prices in an inherently volatile market.
As a veteran myself, this utterly fails to surprise.
Source: The Washington Post
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Phoenix666 on Tuesday May 23 2017, @11:54AM (1 child)
What is the proper term for this kind of thing? "Corruption" is too broad. "Kickbacks" are when the government official overpays for a good or service and the provider turns around and hands a portion of the overage to the official. I don't know the term for this situation, though it is common. The NYC Dept. of Education was allocated $4 billion by the state legislature 12 years ago to build schools and alleviate overcrowding in city schools, but it doesn't build schools and doesn't use the money.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 23 2017, @01:17PM
"black budget" ?