The F/A-22 is a plane with a problem. It is supposed to be the war plane that takes us into 21st century. It would replace our current fighter plane the F-16. But there is a problem, the plane is plagued with avionics problems. The government has decided to go ahead anyway. To compound the problem, if the plane was build right now it would be 4X the cost of the F-16. The B-1 was built in this manner, even though it too at problems and the cost was astronomical. The B-1 was approved in 1987 yet testing was not completed until 1997, ten years later. “The eyes and ears of the plane do not work yet. It is irresponsible to spend billions on a plane that may never work. For every single pie in the sky F-22 the Pentagon can buy four tried and true F-16s,” said Danielle Brian, Executive Director of POGO.
POGO is the Project On Government Oversight.

The Los Angelis Times ran a story on March 21, 2003 about a government sale. It seems the sale was conducted by the Energy Department at their Nevada test site. Why we even mention this sale will be revealed when you check the prices that some of the items were sold for, they are listed below:

23 Trucks sold for 17 cents each. This is not a misprint
1 $9000 copy machine brought in the great price of 5 cents.
1 drilling rig brought in $50,000 but this was a spit in the ocean of its true value.

The FBI is investigating financial fraud. In 1997 Sandia National Laboratory, part of the Energy Department, had sold one of the 100 fastest supercomputers in the world to the Chinese for 31,000 dollars. The Energy Department had to buy it back at a cost of 89,000 dollars.

A study conducted by Prof. Bent Flyvbjerg finds that under estimates for transportation projects have cost citizens billions of dollars. The study also shows that cost overruns have been pretty constant over the last 100 years. (Source: New York Times)

The International Space Station caused NASA to have huge cost overruns. By 1998 the station was a huge four billion dollars over budget. It is estimated that the cost for the Space Station from beginning to end (its deorbiting) will exceed ONE HUNDRED BILLION DOLLARS. What makes this even more unpalatable is the fact that many scientists say that the station is unnecessary and drains the money from space exploration.

The storage of spent nuclear material has become a big problem and gets worse every day. The government has a project called the Yucca Mountain Project. This plan calls for the storage of 77,000 metric tons of waste. The cost of this project has accelerated to FIFTY SIX BILLION DOLLARS. Even if this plan were to be implemented it would not solve the storage problem as there is at least another 44,000 metric tons of waste and building. Many people think that this money is being badly spent and other solutions should be sought rather than risky storage of nuclear waste. They feel that if even 25% this huge amount of money were spent on solutions we would come up with something.

In 1998 the Government Computer-Based Patient Record (GCPR) was started. It purpose was to enable the sharing of medical information between health care personnel and maintain a lifelong medical record. The initial estimate for this project was 279 million dollars over ten years. Eleven months later this had grown to 360 million, but the GAO (Government Accounting Office) states these estimates are understated. The question here is does anyone really know what the final cost of this project will be. It wouldn't be surprising to see the original amount at least doubled.

Audit Finds $2.8 Million in Housing Grants Misused (Source: U.S. House Of Representatives Website)
Source: The Washington Post, May 2000
According to a recent federal audit, a large majority of the $2.8 million Tenant Opportunity Program (TOP) grants never went to the Washington, D.C. public housing tenants for which they were intended.
Designed to provide funding to teach tenants skills necessary to launch small businesses, the TOP grants were placed under the authority of the D.C. Housing Authority. In stead of funding educational and training programs, however, an overwhelming portion of the grant money was used to pay fees from consultants with questionable ties bask to the Housing Authority or the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).
Consultants were hired to assist the housing complex resident councils spend their federal money more wisely. One consultant spent nearly $500,000 - over one-sixth of the total grant - from 1995 to 1997 then closed his office without delivering the computers and training he promised residents. A former D.C. Housing Authority contractor was also hired as a consultant at eight housing facilities. Federal auditors have investigated two of the complexes for which she reportedly preformed services in the amount of $36,000 and found no evidence to support that any of the work had been completed.
A number of tenants reported that they had complained to the D.C. Housing Authority about the lack of work being done by the contracted consultants, but housing officials simply urged them to continue paying the fees. Sylvester Copeland, elected resident council president at the Arthur Capper complex, contacted the Housing Authority about the discrepancies he saw in the consultants only to be told by housing official Chrysta Phillips that he was to continue to write his monthly checks.
In an official investigation, HUD’s inspector general has reported that nearly half of the spending reviewed by his department was either undocumented or inappropriate. Five years after the federal government granted the $2.8 million to provide vocational education and training for tenants, a majority of the funding has been depleted with little or no benefit to the people it was designed to assist.

Highway Bailout May Cost $1 Billion (Source: U.S. House Of Representatives Website)
Source: Associated Press, April 2000

Auditors from the Federal Highway Administration have criticized the management of "The Big Dig" project and recommended the removal of project managers.
The project was begun in 1991 to build an underground connection from the Massachusetts Turnpike to Boston’s interstates. With initial costs placed at $3 billion, the State of Massachusetts now places the price tag at $12.2 billion, with the federal auditors reporting that the cost could be even $1.4 billion over the State’s estimate.
According to sources, the auditors found that project chief James J. Kerasiotes allegedly misled government agencies about the project overruns. However, high-ranking federal transportation officials ordered the original report to be rewritten because of the criticism of Kerasiotes.
Massachusetts Governor Paul Cellucci has proposed borrowing $1 billion from the federal government to cover a portion of the additional costs of the project. Massachusetts officials are planning to cover the remainder of the costs by delving into the pockets of the citizens. Their proposal calls for doubling tolls on the completed connection, slashing funding for other proposed road projects, and taking back the state’s promise to eliminate driver’s license renewals in favor of lifetime licenses.

Again at NASA we find cost cutting on shuttle safety but overall waste of billions of dollars. Science (November 23, 1979) and The Washington Monthly (April 1980) both ran articles that stated that NASA cut costs by taking safety shortcuts. Rockwell International, the shuttle engine contractor, decided not to test each engine component separately but bolted them together instead and tested the engine by trying it. There were at least five major engine fires during these tests. Science’s R. Jeffrey Smith stated that safety shortcuts had created "a shuttle that many feel will be the most risky spacecraft ever launched." It was the opinion of many that mismanagement at NASA had resulted in billions of dollars of wasted funds.