Congressmen Point to $382 ‘No Smoking’ Sign for Cargo Plane : Pentagon Still Paying Exorbitant Prices, Critics Charge

The Pentagon is still paying exorbitant prices for spare parts for C-5 cargo planes, despite a flood of embarrassing disclosures, two House members charged Wednesday as they cited a new example: a $382 “no smoking” sign.

The sign is the latest in a string of items--including $7,600 coffee brewers, $404 wrenches and $659 ashtrays--cited as blatant examples of waste and fraud in the military’s overall procurement system.

The disclosures have spurred congressional hearings and Defense Department investigations, as well as promises of reform--but Rep. Barbara Boxer (D-Greenbrae) asserted that recently obtained documents showed that many overpriced parts were still listed at their old, inflated prices.

Tough Reforms Urged

“The (procurement) system has not kept faith with Congress,” Boxer said as she and Rep. Jim Kolbe (R-Ariz.) called for tough procurement reforms.

“Is the system counting on Congress to lose interest in the waste of billions of dollars?” Boxer asked. “Are they assuming that, once the spotlight has been turned off, it is safe to return to business as usual?”

Likewise, Kolbe said of the Pentagon system for purchasing spare parts: “Plainly, it isn’t working. The time has come to reform the system that purchases these parts.”

He said that he will introduce legislation calling for more standardization of parts; longer assignments for military project officers, so they can learn more about the systems for which they make purchases, and more incentives for contractors to avoid producing unnecessary parts.

Charges Being Checked

At the Defense Department, spokesman Glenn E. Flood said that the charges were being checked and if “found to be valid, we are going to take action to alleviate” the problems.

The documents on which Boxer and Kolbe based their charges were obtained by the Project on Military Procurement, a Washington-based, nonprofit group that studies defense issues. Referring to a study by the project, Kolbe said: “The kind of waste that is demonstrated in this packet of information . . . undermines the consensus that we need if we’re going to strengthen our national defense.”

Dina Rasor, director of the project, said that of 10 C-5 parts the project cited as overpriced last year, only one--a pilot control wheel--had decreased in price as of last month. According to the project, the wheel cost $2,733.70 last year and now is listed at $2,477.

However, the other items, including the coffee brewer, still are listed at last year’s prices or higher, she said.

Compares Airline Costs

Rasor said that the project consults military purchasing experts and makes comparisons with commercial airline costs to determine when a part is overpriced. Using that formula, she said, 10 new overpriced parts have been found since last year.

Among them is the no-smoking sign. Project officials said that the sign is made of plastic and metal and contains 14 light bulbs.

Boxer said: “I think a no-smoking sign is important, but I dare say it could be produced for a lot less” than $382.

Senior Airman Tom Jonsson said in a telephone interview from Travis Air Force Base near Sacramento that the lighted sign is about 18 inches long, less than two inches deep and about two inches high. It says: “No smoking” and “Seat belts.” Jonsson, who orders supplies for C-5s and has talked to suppliers and studied comparable prices, said that a fair price for it would be “no more than 50 bucks.”

The project listed also a $26,937 co-pilot seat and $2,212 windshield wiper motors among what it called overpriced items.

At the Pentagon, Flood speculated that the July and August computer printouts obtained by the project simply do not reflect reductions in the prices. “The prices have changed, but nobody got around to putting them into the computer,” he said.