Audit Finds Boeing Overcharged On Helicopter Contract

Boeing Co.’s St. Louis-based defense unit overcharged the Pentagon by as much as $16.6 million for parts on the CH-47F Chinook helicopter, according to an audit by the Pentagon’s Office of the Inspector General. Boeing charged the Army for new parts on the Chinook while often installing less-expensive used or salvaged ones, according to the audit obtained by Bloomberg News. A Boeing spokesman said the company had not seen the report until it was published by Bloomberg, but that it “disagrees with the IG’s conclusions.” The dollars involved are relatively small in the scope of the $4.4 billion Chinook contract Boeing won in 2008. But this is the fourth time in five years that the OIG has found the company — which has its $32.6 billion defense operation headquartered in north St. Louis County — collected excessive payments on Pentagon contracts.

Read more in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and Bloomberg News