And the Winner Is

There are a lot of rules and regulations about government procurements. Sometimes, as we well know, these rules defy common sense; at other times they seem geared for the benefit of the one company favored by some bureaucrats. I’m sure that our 21st century wars have provided many examples of silly rules and rules gimmicked for a favorite. The latest such example concerns supplying fuel to our troops in Iraq.

For some unspecified reason the contract to supply such fuels specified that the fuel had to be routed through Jordan and a “letter of authorization” from the Jordanian government was needed. You know the rest of the story, right?

Only one company, International Oil Trading Company (IOTC) had such a letter. They won the contract although they were the highest bidder. DOD renewed the contract with IOTC a couple of times again at the highest price. The State Department and the Jordanian Embassy told DOD that they would be willing to help other firms obtain a “letter of authorization”; DOD said, No, thank you.”

The upshot of all of this was that you and I paid almost $200,000,000 more for this fuel than we should have.