Washington, D.C. – Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW) today heralded a 256-page report commissioned by the Senate Armed Service Committee and conducted by Department of Defense (DoD) Inspector General Joseph E. Schmitz, which details how the Air Force worked directly with financially-troubled Boeing to illegally push through the most costly government lease in history.  The report vindicates CAGW, its members, and its allies, who fought to block approval of the budget-busting scandal.  The deal was squashed by Congress last year and two implicated officials are serving federal prison terms.

CAGW was one of the first critics to point out that buying planes outright would be far cheaper than leasing.  In September of 2003, CAGW’s members sent 54,838 letters to members of the Senate Armed Services Committee. The aggressive pummeling of Boeing helped fuel a firestorm of criticism in the media, and the movement to derail the plan won an important ally in Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), member of the Armed Services Committee. 

“It is doubtful that Congress would have acted without sustained pressure from government watchdogs and a few bold legislators that exposed the deal as the most expensive, unnecessary, budget-busting, scandalous example of corporate welfare in recent memory,” CAGW President Tom Schatz said.

The new report concludes that four top Air Force officials and Undersecretary of Defense Edward C. Aldridge violated Pentagon procurement rules, ignored a legal requirement for weapons testing, failed to ensure that tankers meet stated requirements, and did not use “best business practices.”  Air Force and Boeing officials worked together to manipulate authorization legislation and to suppress dissent among Pentagon officials.  Additionally, “numbers were contorted a lot of different ways to sell the program.”  For example, the basis for the tanker-lease deal was that the current KC-135 planes were in urgent need of replacement; however, the IG report supports the Defense Science Board’s contention that the planes were usable until 2040.

The DoD report blacks out 64 names and numerous emails, as wells as the names of Members of Congress who pressured DoD to back the deal.

“The Senate Armed Services Committee is to be commended for its investigating the details of what the Chairman has rightly described as one of the most significant military contracting abuses in contemporary history,” Schatz concluded.  “Getting to the bottom of this scandal is critical to preventing future abuses of this magnitude.”

Citizens Against Government Waste is the nation's largest nonpartisan, nonprofit organization dedicated to eliminating waste, fraud, abuse, and mismanagement in government.