"Waste, fraud, and abuse"

[Ishmael]

BB posted this originally, which means that few read it but it is news worthy. And the article got me thinking.

What's Missing from this Story?
Nature magazine--not exactly on the top of the sales rack even at Barnes & Noble (I subscribe)--last week reported a bizarre story that is receiving no attention in the U.S. media that I've seen: The Eurocrats in Brussels have uncovered a massive organized crime effort that secured $72 million in fraudulent scientific research grants. An excerpt:

The fraud has been conducted in a "highly sophisticated manner, resembling money laundering", by means of a cross-border network of fictitious companies and subcontractors, says Pavel Bořkovec, a spokesman for OLAF. Several project coordinators stand accused of having claimed inflated costs, or expenses for non-existent research activities and services, he says.

"The projects were apparently organized with the sole intention to deceive the commission and its control mechanisms," says Boublil. To make them seem legitimate, grant applications included the names of real scientists, established research institutes and existing companies, he says. But in most cases the alleged project partners were included without their knowing.

The strange part of this story is that it offers no details about what specific areas of government research funding were pilfered, or what "results" may have come of the fraudulent research projects they supported. Could it have been in the climate science domain, where the most government research money seems to be sloshing around? We know that there has been organized fraud in the European carbon trading market. Trading had to be halted back in January when it was discovered that millions of dollars of carbon allowances had been stolen and cashed on the spot market, so this wouldn't be the first time that organized crime had fixed on the climate circus as an easy mark. And one of the overlooked e-mails in the "Climategate" scandal involving the East Anglia University Climate Research Unit two years ago was a message from one of the scientists suggesting that a particular grant be routed through a Russian organization as a means of tax evasion.

For the better part of my life I've been listening to the mantra of "waste, fraud, and abuse" when it comes to government spending. From the municipal, to the county, to the state, and, of course, the federal levels of government. The focus changes from the construction and maintenance of government buildings, to the military, to medicare/medicaid. And now we're beginning to see evidence in the research funding's.

The fact is that anything the government does is rife with "waste, fraud, and abuse." It is the nature of the beast and once the government opens the taxpayers wallet for any conceivable project there are people out there scheming as to how to get their mitts on the money. You can find evidence of this going all the way back to the Revolutionary War. Even more evidence is available from the Civil War records.

It was evident when Carter opened the federal flood gates for the funding of the 'War on Cancer' and the drive for 'alternative and renewable energy.' Fully 50% of all the monies allocated by congress for those effort was money just pissed away. Bad science, dead end science, and "waste, fraud, and abuse."

Back in the 'Golden Age' Big Jim Fisk and his partner in mischief planned on building a railroad on the west coast of FL. called the Bradenton Tampa Railroad, they sold a few million dollars in stock in that entity and that entity never came into being. All of the investors lost their ass. When Bernie Madoff pulled off his scheme virtually all of the investors lost their ass. Markets were effected, short term, but all in all the only losers were the investors, the loss wasn't lumped on the backs of the taxpayers.

Not so with the government, when they make bad decisions (the probability of which is much higher than making a wise decision) the taxpayer takes it in the shorts. When you're dealing with the government filling out the paper work properly is a hell of a lot more important than actually having anything of substance to sell or develop. There is an entire industry out there devoted to the teaching of how to apply for government grants. What tick marks you have to have, which agencies to route the paperwork through, everything you need to know to dip into the taxpayers wallet. Most of the bureaucrats in these agencies don't have a clue as to the merit of these proposals so are in no position to say no as long as the paperwork is properly formatted. As a matter of fact they make great efforts to dispose of the money lest their budget be cut in the next fiscal year. Go to their websites, they boast of the money they given away.

The point being that any government funded project is going to be riddled with 'waste, fraud, and abuse.' You can't walk around with a purse of gold, jingling it in front of all without expecting to be robbed. The bigger the purse, the bolder the robber. It really is just that simple. When the holder of that purse is some private entity, well to bad for them. There are many that would opine that they asked for it. Why isn't that same attitude prevalent when it's the government jingling the gold?

It really is quite simple, the smaller the purse, the smaller the loss. And when that loss falls upon a private citizen, or a private company, then at least it's not the taxpayer that has to make good on the robbery.

Government, by definition, attracts, and foments, 'waste, fraud, and abuse.' It's the nature of the beast and has been true going all the way back to ancient Egypt, or China if you prefer. Of course the governments answer to taking care of 'waste, fraud, and abuse' is to grow government. We are now in the process of creating agencies to watch the agencies that were created to watch agencies. All the taxpayer has gotten out of the deal is a bigger government with more 'waste, fraud, and abuse.'

Apparently no one has quite figured out that 'waste, fraud, and abuse' is a function of the size of the purse. It's almost a fixed percentage and that more government only means more 'waste, fraud, and abuse.' By focusing on the miscreant du jour is only a deflection from the root problem. The more money we've spent on eliminating 'waste, fraud, and abuse', the more 'waste, fraud, and abuse' we've gotten in return. How long do we continue down that path?

Ishmael

 

[Saint Peter]

Small purses do not do large research.

There is fraud in these systems, but there is also good science that is created/discovered in the process.

 

[eyer]

How long do we continue down that path?

Ishmael

"we" is exactly who "that path" is paved for.

The only way off it is via individual decision.

And unless that choice is made, the collective journey simply continues down its statist trail to its socialist end...

 

[Ishmael]

Small purses do not do large research.

There is fraud in these systems, but there is also good science that is created/discovered in the process.

There is HUGE fraud in these projects, more than you can ever begin to imagine. Very little of those monies ever made itself into useful products/science/technology. Further, the money spent on research by private industry dwarfs the government money. The difference is that private funding is focused funding and doesn't subscribe to the 'sunk cost' philosophy of funding justification.

There are some areas that the government does pretty well at as far as funding goes, but they are not heavy consumers of monies.

Ishmael

 

[pornstarwannabe]

There is HUGE fraud in these projects, more than you can ever begin to imagine. Very little of those monies ever made itself into useful products/science/technology. Further, the money spent on research by private industry dwarfs the government money. The difference is that private funding is focused funding and doesn't subscribe to the 'sunk cost' philosophy of funding justification.

There are some areas that the government does pretty well at as far as funding goes, but they are not heavy consumers of monies.

Ishmael

You men there is still fraud, waste, and abuse? Politicians have been spouting for decades to end it. Did they lie?!?!?!?

 

[KingOrfeo]

Next time a politician promises to save money by reducing waste, demand they end the energy crisis by reducing friction.