In the latest case of astonishing government incompetence, the Washington State Ferries spent $5.3 million of hard-earned taxpayer dollars on generators that the agency later discovered didn’t work on ferries. The story gets worse when you factor in that this happened nearly nine years ago and, since then, the agency has been paying $3,500/month to store the unused generators. That’s an additional $378,000 of taxpayer dollars wasted.
Last month, the Washington State Ferries listed the generators on the Public Surplus website with an opening price of $300,000. There are no bids for the generators—surprise, surprise.
Apparently, the agency attempted to sell the generators in the past was not successful. Despite that fact, ferries spokesman Ian Sterling insists they will be purchased for scrap—at, of course, a huge loss.