Meet the most hated man in the Pentagon
By ELLEN MITCHELL
Some of the nations leading defense companies are declaring war on a powerful enemy an obscure Pentagon official named Shay Assad who has helped cut more than $500 million from military contracts with his aggressive scrutiny of their costs.
The industrys tactics include blanketing congressional committees with proposals that would make it harder for Assad and his contracting officers to get detailed breakdowns of the companies' expenses, according to documents obtained by POLITICO. But Assad, the Pentagon's pricing director for the past five years, refuses to back down, saying: "We are going to be relentless in pursuing getting the good deal for the taxpayers."
That's the way it is, said Assad, a 65-year-old Bostonian with the heavy accent to match. If companies don't like it, people have an objection to it, we're not apologizing for it."
The result is an unlikely, all-out campaign pitting giants like Boeing and Honeywell against a Pentagon official so little-known that even some top defense lawmakers say they're unfamiliar with his jousting with the industry.
Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2016/04/defense-pentagon-spending-assad-221776
Simeon Salus
(1,144 posts)If the people Politico talks to say they don't like him, he must be doing his job well.
Cutting the flagrant waste at the Pentagon could solve many of our budget problems. The guy who might do that is opposed, by definition, by everyone at the Pentagon who likes flagrant waste, perpetuates grossly over-funded weapon systems and needs to steal taxpayer money in order to get rich.
That he talks with a Boston accent but has a Muslim-sounding name makes him even better.
Gumboot
(531 posts)... bottomless black hole of waste & corruption. Tip o' the hat to Mr Assad!
If he would cancel the F-35 fighter program, that would save us another $1tn...