State Department makes bank by outsourcing passport production to dodgy overseas contractors
Ross sez, "The State Department is making a profit on every passport ordered by a US citizen because it has outsourced printing to Asia, including a Thai company that has had had problems with Chinese espionage.
Not only is this stupidity from an administration supposedly committed to keeping the USA safe, it may also be illegal since Congress requires such activities to be break-even rather than to profit from the citizens it supposedly serves."
But GPO Inspector General J. Anthony Ogden, the agency's internal watchdog, doesn't share that confidence. He warned in an internal Oct. 12 report that there are "significant deficiencies with the manufacturing of blank passports, security of components, and the internal controls for the process."LinkThe inspector general's report said GPO claimed it could not improve its security because of "monetary constraints." But the inspector general recently told congressional investigators he was unaware that the agency had booked tens of millions of dollars in profits through passport sales that could have been used to improve security, congressional aides told The Times
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Pshhht. This problem could be fixed tout-sweet by switching the contract over to a Halliburton subsidiary. Any profits accumulated to date would be wiped out way quick.
stupendous.
I feels teh safer.
Go go keeping jobs in America!
Is this article quoting the Washington Times of Reverend Moon !?
Doesn't every single corner in Washington D.C. have a printing company of some sort?
/Not related to "Reverend" Moon.
The introduction at the top is wrong. It might not be a big deal to everyone here but you state that the State Dept. is making a profit on each passport ordered, but the article states:
"The Government Printing Office's decision to export the work has proved lucrative, allowing the agency to book more than $100 million in recent profits by charging the State Department more money for blank passports than it actually costs to make them"
The GPO is making a profit at the expense of the State Dept. To me this is a significant difference because the State Dept. has to outsource the printing to them and they're being overcharged for an inferior product that they're also unaware of happening.
I also don't see how this is a big deal. They're printing blank passports here and not finished products. Also, these agencies are required by law to save American taxpayers as much money as possible while still guaranteeing the security level of their products which they at least claim to be able to do and until an external audit proves otherwise this seems to be junk to me.
And what administration is going to get into office and start investigating the practices of the Gov't Printing Office? I mean who gives a rip. There's obviously bigger problems on their plate that they gave themselves here rather than worrying about what contractors the GPO is using at any given point in time.
Hahaha, Happy opposite day! I think our "government" needs a little time to double think this problem.
I'm ok with the GPO printing *blank* passports overseas if it saves the government money. But in this case, the GPO is "making" money at the State Dept's cost. This is like me making a "profit" by borrowing money from myself (with interest!).
Wait. . . they just increased the cost of getting a passport earlier this year. Why? To increase their profits? Well, I guess we have to pay for the Bush tax cuts somehow.
Do you really want (even blank) passports printed in another country? It will still make it easier for forgers over there to make fakes-- it's like you've done half the work for them.
Wow--you know things are bad when even the Moonie Times is turning up government corruption.
DOES NOT COMPUTE!
DOES NOT COMPUTE!
(tag)whatcouldpossiblygowrong(/tag)
My new US flag was made in China!
When do we plan to melt down the Statue of Liberty to reclaim the copper?
Going broke in the land of plenty....
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Since the government is finding new ways to make money, will they reduce taxes now?
Um, what could be worse than having blank passports manufactured overseas? They're **blank**, as in they have the security features and printing on them and you can print whatever else you want on them.
Perhaps we should save money by printing our currency in Thailand? No? That would be stupid? Of course it would!! And so is the outsourcing of the production of high security documents with major national security implications to an overseas low bidder!!!
they already did that under the guise of recent repairs. The pot-metal is almost as sgood.
If they're that hard up for cash, they could always sell the passports on Ebay.
Thailand will be outsourcing to the US soon enough.
You really need to revise the text of this post. As written, it misleads. It matters that the Gov't Printing Office is the guilty party here (at least according to the newspaper article, and not the State Department. Perhaps the American citizen gets the short end in either case, but if you're going to gun for the guilty party here aim with some degree of accuracy - the GPO is sticking it to the diplomats, too, you know.
I paid 180$ to get my passport to go to guatemala. and it went to this? This is probably the first time I have cried while looking at anything on the internet.
the thing is to me, it just sounds like guatemalan news. Like the united states is just another banana republic with polliticians scrambling to get into office so that they can sell governmental resources.
You know they sold the national guatemalan postal service to some rich texan guy. it was supposed to be something about fixing government debts, but most of it went to the president at the time. America is gonna be like that soon.
it's only a matter of time, and if you know anything about the downfall of guatemalan economy, I think you will be crying to.