Ripping off the Government

Ripping off the Government.

Last month, the government of Lithuania had found out that they were charged more than three times the price for telecommunications. Whereas it costs 4 cents a minute for phone calls, the govt was charged 16 cents a minute. And whereas text messages costs 6 cents, the govt was charged 18 cents. They suffered a loss of 8 million Euros. And if that is not enough, the Russian national gas company, Gazprom, is accused by the Lithuanian govt of overcharging them too.

The American government alleges that Oracle, a software company, was overcharging them millions of dollars from 1998 to 2006. The company gave discounts to all of its customers but seemed to have forgotten the feds. But someone remembered though and that someone was Paul Frascella, a senior director of services at Oracle. And for being a whistle-blower, he can get 20% of any damages awarded in the case.

Here in the province of Nova Scotia, Canada, the provincial government is going into the paving business. There are 12 asphalt companies in the province and the local govt feels that it is not getting a fair deal from any of them. The govt feels that they can do a cheaper and better job if they do it themselves. Although most of the paving will still be done by outside contractors, the contractors are very upset about it. It's their own fault. They have no one to blame but themselves. If some of these guys had given the govt a fair deal, none of this would be happening.

NASA has sent two rovers to the planet Mars; they are called Spirit and Opportunity. They were suppose to last only for a few months; instead they lasted for a few years. Everyone thinks they got their money's worth; I don't know about that.

NASA will send another rover to Mars this fall. They have been working on it for the last couple of years and say it will cost 2.5 billion dollars. I think NASA has also been working in fleecing their own govt. I don't believe for one second that that contraption costs 2.5 billion dollars. It's not a battleship, it's a machine about the size of a volkswagen car. For 2.5 billion dollars, you should be able to build a whole fleet of them. This will be the most expensive mission to Mars. NASA may have some of the best scientists in the world, but they certainly don't have some of the best accountants in the world.