A Pentagon audit found that Boeing cleared Air Force parts, including soap dispensers, at an 8,000% markup.

WASHINGTON – Boeing The Air Force overcharged nearly $1 million on spare parts for C-17 cargo planes, including an 8,000 percent markup on simple toilet soap dispensers, the Pentagon inspector general said.

Auditor of the Ministry of Defense revised prices paid on 46 spare parts for the C-17 from 2018 to 2022 and found that 12 were overpriced and nine seemed reasonable. He was unable to determine fair prices for the remaining 25 items.

Office of the Inspector General said they had revised the prices of soap dispensers after receiving a message from the hotline.

Boeing disputed the findings.

“We are reviewing a report that appears to be based on inappropriate comparisons of prices paid for parts consistent with aircraft and contract specifications and designs with basic commercial items that would not be qualified or approved for use on the C-17.” Boeing said in a statement: “We will continue to work with the OIG and the Air Force to provide a detailed written response to the report in the coming days.”

The C-17 Globemaster is one of the largest military cargo aircraft. It can carry several military vehicles, large pallets of humanitarian supplies or, in extreme circumstances, hundreds of people. The Air Force flew C-17s nonstop for two weeks during the turbulent troop drawdown from Afghanistan in August 2021. evacuate over 120,000 civilians fleeing the Taliban.

Since 2011, the U.S. government has awarded Boeing more than $30 billion in contracts to purchase needed C-17 spare parts, at reimbursement to the Air Force.

Boeing is still trying to recover from the financial and reputational damage caused two fatal accidents in 2018 and 2019 of its best-selling airliner, the 737 Max.

It was especially unstable year for the aerospace giant. It came under new scrutiny and a federal investigation after a door plug flew off the 737 Max during Alaska Airlines flight in January. Federal regulators have limited production of the Boeing plane.

Boeing agreed in July plead guilty on charges of conspiracy to defraud the government for misleading regulators who approved pilot training rules for the Max. That plea agreement is pending before a federal judge in Texas.

Boeing is in its third CEO position in five years, hiring an outsider who joined the company in August. Boeing last week reported a third-quarter loss of more than $6 billion due to costs across several commercial, defense and space programs.

Strike 33,000 union machinists, seven weeks into it, and it has crippled production of 737, 777 and 767 freighters, draining much-needed cash. New CEO Kelly Ortberg announced layoffs of about 17,000 people and the company will issue new shares to raise up to $19 billion to shore up its debt-laden balance sheet.

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Koenig reported from Dallas.