More gross over spending.

[gumbo]

The fuel? The insurance? the dumping fees? The cost for loading? ALL administration costs? Whatever time, people, offices and all those associated costs, it took to get in position to take advantage of the opportunity? When you show me that someone, a person, is putting $3,500 per load, pure profit, in their pocket, then we have an issue

Hello..The company that ended up with the $3 a cubic yard contract figuared in all that before they bid it for $3.

 

[Larry Gude]

Not so...

Hello..The company that ended up with the $3 a cubic yard contract figuared in all that before they bid it for $3.

...as I read the article...

It also says that its contract with the Army Corps involved much more than simply hauling debris. As project manager, the company was also responsible for loading the debris trucks, managing the tremendous logistical operations of the debris-removal operation and providing hundreds of workers to manage the cleanup efforts.

...the project managers, aka the 'fleecers', are doing a little bit more than going to the bank.

 

[MMDad]

Because unless I'm reading it wrong, it's being paid for with taxes.

Say you're hiring ME to mow your lawn, and I tell you it's gonna cost $200 bucks - and I sub-contract it out, pay someone else to weed-eat and someone else does the refuse removal, and so on.

Of course, if you'd had any brains, you'd pay the kids next door to do the same job for twenty bucks, because at the end of the day - they're doing it for that price anyway - I'm just pocketing the other 180, because you're a moron.

It's not that it goes on - it's that some idiot was willing to pay 200 bucks to mow a lawn when 20 would have been fine.

Here's a better example than your lawn situation:

You want 20 acres cleared. Rather than paying somebody a flat rate to clear the land, you decide to pay them per ton of debris they haul. The contractor looks at you like you're almost stupid enough to be the government, but gives you a quote for $23/ton anyway. You go with it.

That person hires loggers, leases equipment, and hires somebody to haul the wood chips away. As you pass the site, you ask the hauler what he's getting to haul the debris. He answers $3/ton.

Do you now feel ripped off?

 

[Larry Gude]

Folks...

The four primary contractors — Ashbritt Inc., CERES Environmental Services Inc., Environmental Chemical Corp. and Phillips and Jordan Inc. — were each provided with a $500 million contract and a $500 million option by the Army Corps.

Did they break the rules getting the contract?

Are they fulfilling the contract?



What else is there to say?

 

[SamSpade]

Well I don't work for the government as a contractor but as a reg'lar employee, so I admit I don't know as much as others do here about.

FWIW, my wife agress with most of y'all. She says there's lots more to it that what I'm seeing.

I did see the part where someone said they were paying for logistics, etc and I get MMDad's point....

I also saw a part somewhere where someone said "it's just trash removal - it's NOT complicated". I tend to concur with that - this ain't rocket science -

I realize that, say, Waste Management might pay its laborers a pittance and have a lot of overhead - but it's not as though this work requires sales, marketing, advertising, recruiting - you know, all that. It's hauling trash.

As Ken observed, there's at least one or two guys in the chain who did nothing but pass the buck while taking a dollar profit. No project oversight, no management, no logistics.

The bottom line is I think the government could have done this for less. I can't help it if the way it goes about it almost ensures that it will cost a lot.

 

[Larry Gude]

I don't know zhit...

Well I don't work for the government as a contractor but as a reg'lar employee, so I admit I don't know as much as others do here about.
FWIW, my wife agress with most of y'all. She says there's lots more to it that what I'm seeing.

I did see the part where someone said they were paying for logistics, etc and I get MMDad's point....

I also saw a part somewhere where someone said "it's just trash removal - it's NOT complicated". I tend to concur with that - this ain't rocket science -

I realize that, say, Waste Management might pay its laborers a pittance and have a lot of overhead - but it's not as though this work requires sales, marketing, advertising, recruiting - you know, all that. It's hauling trash.

As Ken observed, there's at least one or two guys in the chain who did nothing but pass the buck while taking a dollar profit. No project oversight, no management, no logistics.

The bottom line is I think the government could have done this for less. I can't help it if the way it goes about it almost ensures that it will cost a lot.

...about no government contracts or the process. I just know the motivations of business; if someone got cheated, there will be law suits and all of this will get fixed. Enron ring any bells? Corporate cheaters don't run amock anymore. They get ruined and they go to jail.

Listen to your wife and shut up about it. She's right. Whether it is rocket science or not has NOTHING to do with cost. Pretty much everything the government does or buys could have been done 'better' or cheaper because government doesn't work like business...nor can it. Nor should it. Hell, business's fail all the time because THEY didn't get 'it' done better or cheaper.

If there is something wrong here, it will come out.

 

[Charles]

The original bureaucrat that accepted the $23 bid is incompetent or crooked. If it is a haul that needs a specialized carrier, he should know that. This particular example of debris removal sounds like a typical Louisiana ripoff.