Government Contracts Provide Plenty of Opportunities for Crime and Corruption

(MoneyWatch)  This case from Connecticut illustrates another way that government spending can cause crime and corruption. According to The Hartford Courant a Mr. Breen pleaded no contest to two felony charges of larceny. Mr. Breen had set up a company to help other businesses get federal contracts. He took payments totaling over $70 thousand from two people but failed to do any work. There are plenty of legitimate companies that will assist other ones in winning contracts by helping write proposals or navigating the ways through regulations to get GSA qualified or so on. Mr. Breen may actually have helped other ones properly, it is just in these two cases he did not. The amount of money available from government contracts makes it desirable for a lot of companies to try and get the work. Mr. Breen took advantage of that desire.