By Justin Rood, ABC News
The U.S. government has committed to spend a record-high $1.1 trillion with companies holding government contracts “plagued by waste, fraud, abuse or mismanagement,” according to a new report by the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.
The report blames the rise in bad spending on a sharp increase in noncompetitive contracting and a general increase in the use of private companies to perform government functions.
More than $200 billion in taxpayer money was spent on projects for which only one or a handful of companies submitted bids, the committee found.
That figure has more than tripled since 2000, according to the report, and now comprises more than half of all government spending outside of entitlement programs like Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security.
(Original Article)