State Department Pays $6,600 for E-Readers That Retail for $189

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• I smell kickbacks.

• Hey, I'd be willing to buy them a bunch of Kindles and sell them to the government at the discounted "used" price of $4,000 each! Just think how much money I could save you!
  BTW, the picture in the article from Nextgov is of a standard Kindle that costs $79.

• This makes perfect sense to me. After working for two company's that did business with the government (at least for awhile) I understand completely.
  $6,600.00 for an E-Reader breaks down like this. E-Reader, $100. Paperwork and audits for massive hordes of bureaucrats and committees trying to justify their useless existence. $3,500. Bribes and kickbacks to politicians and procurement execs, $3,000. That's per each reader. Thats why this crap costs so much. Think I am kidding? If so, you are very naive.

  • My Dad worked on the contracts for the development of Cheyenne Mountain. He aggravated the sellers to no end because they winded and dined him, and gave him tickets to stuff, but he told them that would have no effect on his negotiations the next day. And he was right. A very frugal man, he kept the contractual agreements cut to the bone. Of course, that was years ago, when that was considered a good diea!

• Another link gone. Wats goin on?

  • I just nosed around. The link is gone. Evidently nextgov, who first reported this screwed up. The terms are way different and the price is reasonable.

    http://www.nextgov.com/mobile/2012/06/state-buys-2500-kindles-165-million-no-bid-contract-amazon/56193/

    • The article is still wrong. They are not buying Kindles with the descriptions they are giving for why they chose them. They are purchasing Kindle Fires, which are much more that e-readers.

• It is no wonder they're mulling over a per-mile road tax.

• I'm going back to bed....

  • I only wish I could do that.

• Over-regulate the private sector while the federal spenders go unfettered.
  If the vast majority of American voters don't wake up soon to the need of reversing this debilitating monstrosity of a government we are doomed.

• I know for a fact that if a government agency doesn't spend the whole budget within a certain time frame the money is moved elsewhere and they get less the next certain time frame. To avoid that, the agency bosses find ways to spend millions of dollars as fast as they can even on things that aren't needed and perhaps even wanted. That is how the GSA ends up with excessive vacation and plasmas and what not. Sometimes a hammer is $100 where $20 pays for the hammer and then $80 just flies away somewhere or is padded in someone's pocket. The waste and the arrogance offends me greatly.

  • Maybe if the agencies had clearly defined, (and legal within the Constitutions's enumerated powers), jobs to do, and the director were to receive a bonus at the end of the year if he came in under budget, like private companies do, this would be brought under control.

    Just think of the REAL library tasks that could have been done with that kind of money. Somebody needs to go to jail.

    • No bonuses. That would make the Government EEEEVVVIIILLLLL! Oh wait.. . .

    • That's the thing. This kind of fraud is criminal. If not actually criminal, it SHOULD be. bankers, brokers. lawyers - hell even real estate agents - have a fiduciary duty to responsibly handle their clients money and assets. Why do our public official and employees not have such a legal duty? ALL of their funds are someone else's money.

    • Agreed.

• That link is no good...try this one

  http://www.freedomreport.org/state-department-contract-allows-it-to-purchase-kindle-e-readers-for-6600-each-kindles-retail-for-189/

• People need to stop and THINK about this for a second. The cost of TEN of these e-readers almost as much money as my husband makes a year! That is: two hundred and fifty FAMILIES could live nicely on what those things cost, and STILL provide the 2500 e-readers to the library. My entire neighborhood is only 125 homes, so that is like two whole neighborhoods who could live off of that waste, for an entire year. THAT's whats so infuriating about this government! They don't think about this money as "money", and instead see it as "numbers on a contract or spreadsheet".

  • My Kindle e reader cost $79. $189 is a rip off, mcuh less a zillion times that! The new Kindle FIre which is a tablet deal with access to the internet, video, etc is $189. Hearing about the problems of "speech to print" sounds like they bourght Fires. STILL outrageous!

    • Fire doesn't do speech to print, at least the one I have doesn't. There isn't even a microphone.