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I recently did some searching to find out which US Army contracting officers in Europe were procuring the products my American employer sells to the Army in the USA. I also researched who they were currently buying from so I could understand what kind of competition we would run up against and what pricing we would be competing with. Once you know your competition finding out their official pricing is rather easy since all US vendors have contracts that are viewable if you know where to find them.
When I looked up procurement history from US Army Europe I found something that was very discouraging. Of the approximately $2,453,677,924 worth of procurements in the report, almost 25% of these moneys were paid to vendors listed only as MISCELLANEOUS FOREIGN CONTRACT or MISCELLANEOUS FOREIGN CONTRACTORS. No where in the record does it identify the name of the contractor OR what country they are from. The overall source list does make note of many foreign vendors on the list and a few fortunate American contractors who have opened up shop in Europe.
$579,395,496 paid out to who? Does not say.
Is this a problem? I think so.
Is it legal? Yes
When American media speaks about Americans who are angry at jobs being shipped overseas most do not really know what this means other than the fact that jobs once available in their Communities are no longer in their Communities.
When we hear about our budget deficits and the necessity to give Billions of Dollars to the US Department of Defense and US Department of State, it is NOT possible to determine how much of these moneys actually get used to procure services and products from US companies.
More to come…
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