Houston, we have a problem.

Good morning folks - 

Your project is billions of dollars over budget and years behind schedule? No problem, here is a big fat bonus check.

Sound familiar? While it shouldn’t, it probably does, since our federal government continues to recklessly spend your tax dollars.

Countless government contractors are receiving bonuses for failing to do their job. From the Department of Defense (DoD) to NASA, and almost every government agency in between, we see government contractors who have underperformed, or simply not performed at all, getting bonuses totaling BILLIONS of dollars of your hard-earned money.

Take the Pentagon for example: according to the DoD Inspector General, the Pentagon may have paid $10.6 million—of YOUR MONEY—in unearned bonuses to a contractor who failed to provide the necessary parts purchased for fighter jets, which is creating “a life and safety concern” for our airmen.

Or what about the government contractors who were supposed to send us back on the moon?

Lift off is $1.8 billion over budget and years behind schedule as a result of the “poor performance” of the contractors, according to NASA’s own Inspector General.  Despite the less than stellar performance, the space agency has paid the contractors more than HALF-A-BILLION dollars in bonuses.

Click here or on the image above to watch July's episode of Squeal TV.

July Squeal Award: Federal Contractors

It makes no sense to reward failure to launch. It’s not rocket science.

For these reasons, I am giving my July Squeal Award to the federal contractors that are promising the moon, but really just giving us a “moondoggle.”

And it’s also why I’ve introduced my Bogus Bonus Ban Act which would prohibit the payment of bonuses to contractors for unsatisfactory performance and outcomes, including projects that are over budget or behind schedule. (Something I’ve squealed about before…billion dollar boondoggles.)

Folks, we should never stop reaching for the stars, but we will never get off the ground by rewarding losing billions of taxpayer dollars in budgetary black holes with big bonuses.

Do you have an example of government waste or inefficiencies that I should take a look at? Send me an email by clicking here.

Thank you!