Corruption’s Currency
If you ever wondered how corrupt John Murtha is, this Washington Post article paints the perfect picture. Here’s the telling snapshot:
Last month, Concurrent came under scrutiny by Congress after The Washington Post reported that a nonprofit subsidiary, Commonwealth Research Institute, agreed to pay a senior civilian Air Force official $13,400 a month while awaiting White House approval of his appointment.
The official, Charles D. Riechers, said in an interview that he did not meet company officials before he took the job and did no work specifically for the company in the two months he was on its payroll. Instead, he said, he worked for the Air Force’s acquisition office as a senior adviser on a variety of technical matters through a consulting arrangement that service officials said is common in the Pentagon. Riechers became principal deputy assistant secretary for acquisition in January.
The first logical question is what this has to do with John Murtha. Here’s that explanation:
Concurrent Technologies began two decades ago doing metalworking research in Pennsylvania’s struggling rust belt. In the years since, the Johnstown, Pa., company has become a federal contracting chameleon.
It is an intelligence adviser, an environmental consultant and a software engineering specialist. It has trained mine-detecting dogs and managed religion-based initiatives. It oversees construction projects, organizes conferences and studies ways to use hydrogen for fuel in Pennsylvania and South Carolina. Missile-defense research is part of its portfolio. So is the development of special armor for combat vehicles in Iraq and “solid waste technology” in Florida.
And it is a nonprofit charity.
Behind the rise of Concurrent is Rep. John P. Murtha (D-Pa.), chairman of the House Appropriations Committee’s defense subcommittee, who helped arrange funding to launch the organization in 1988. Murtha has since arranged millions of dollars more in directed congressional appropriations called earmarks. Now Concurrent has nearly $250 million in annual revenue and 1,500 employees.
Concurrent is a prime example of how to marry entrepreneurial savvy, influence on Capitol Hill and arcane procurement rules to create budget magnets in congressional districts. Unlike many other big contractors, Concurrent pays no income tax on most of its revenue. Unlike nonprofit, federally funded research-and-development corporations, it is not chartered by the federal government.
I said in this post that John Murtha’s DC office should be renamed the “Corporate Welfare office.” I’m having second thoughts about that, though not because I think the title isn’t appropriate. I’m thinking that they should just shut Murtha’s office down for a couple years after he’s run out of DC.
Here’s how CBSNews explained Concurrent Technology Corp’s (CTC) meteoric rise in revenues:
Defense contractors have found that if they open an office there and hire the right lobbyist, they can get lucrative, no-bid contracts. Over the past decade, Concurrent Techologies Corp., a defense-research firm that employs 800 people, got hundreds of millions of dollars thanks to Murtha despite poor reviews by Pentagon auditors.
Let’s summarize this. If you hire a Murtha crony as your lobbyist and if you move into Murtha’s district and if you hire Murtha’s political allies to do-nothing jobs while they’re waiting for their Pentagon appointment to be approved, you’re rewarded with millions of dollars of no-bid contracts, aka earmarks, aka corruption’s currency. the bonus is that, if you follow these ’semi-federal guidelines’, your corporation attains tax exempt status so your corporation won’t pay taxes on its ‘profits’.
That’s a can’t lose proposition if I’ve ever heard it. I wouldn’t want to be a welfare recipient when I can be a charity case. I just need to hire one of John Murtha’s cronies.
Technorati Tags: Cronyism, Culture of Corruption, Corruption Currency, CTC, Charity, Corporate Welfare, John Murtha, Earmarks, Defense Contractor
Cross-posted at LetFreedomRingBlog