Hal Murray wrote: >>> Are there some funny accounting rules screwing things up? >> Not accounting rules as you meant them, but rather end use rules. > >> It takes someone with a functioning brain to figure out what the >> different pieces of equipment are, and to make sure that the end use >> restrictions are honored. It is far easier to drive over the stuff >> with a dozer, and render it inert than it is to propagate the >> necessary paper chain... or so the DRMO says. > > I'm still somewhat (but not very) surprised that they aren't outsourcing the > whole mess or something like that.
They tried that during Clinton, and the companies that did the work didn't do the work. They were less efficient than DRMO was in the first place... of course by the time they found that out, all of the original guys that did the work for DRMO were fired, retired, or reassigned. > I assume "end use rules" means don't send fancy gear to Iran and North Korea Yes, that is the general idea. Also medical equipment must not be used by the US medical community in the US, hazardous materials must sold only to companies that are proven capable of safe use and disposal, vehicles must not be sold in a way that competes with commercial companies (HumVee's, etc.), airplanes must not be sold in a way that competes with Boing... > etc. Is there a simple list of what is/isn't OK to ship to anybody? If a > box sells for $100, it can't be a big deal to have somebody check each item > against a known-OK list. If the penalties are real nasty, check it twice. That works fine if you assume that the US Gov't only surpluses a few hundred different items. The the truth is they surplus hundreds of thousands of different items. Everything from Apple Computers to Zebra shaped figurines. Imagine what would happen if a 0.01 uf capacitor appeared in the inventory as: Capacitor, 0.01 uf Capacitor, 0.01MFD Capacitor, 10nf Condenser, 0.01 uf Condenser, 0.01MFD Condenser, 0.01 MFD Condenser, 0.01 MF Condenser, 10nf Cap, 0.01uf Cap, 0.01MFD Cap, 10nf Electronic Component, Condenser, 0.01 microfarad... It does, and worse, there are spelling errors too! Most every item in the DRMO inventory appears multiple times. Each time a little different, depending on how the clerk who entered it thought to describe it. > The stuff you can't ship to bad guys is probably worth more so they would be > motivated to find it. Motivated??? What are you talking about? The real work gets done by warehousemen that drive forklifts. These guys are GS5's, and get paid just a little bit above minimum wage. They are too dumb to be motivated, let alone give a rats ass about what they are doing. Electronic equipment is just metal boxes to them. -Chuck _______________________________________________ time-nuts mailing list [email protected] https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts
