The story about the NHS paying over the odds for crappy computers reminds me...
My brother's in the RAF, and was - not so long ago - on a base where they saw fit to order a bunch of minibus type things. With one eye on the bottom line, the order was for the most basic model - so basic that they weren't even to have stereos in them.

The order went through, and the buses arrived. Shock horror, they had stereos. You can't get them without.

So what did Her Majesty's finest do? Did they feel smug for having blagged this small luxury for no extra cost?

Nope. They paid someone to remove the stereos.
( Enzyme is powered by sunlight, Mon 27 Feb 2012, 14:59, 4 replies)

Indeed
I know of some RAF equipment that is stuck in a warehouse as it "failed quality control". Did they send £8m of equipment back to the supplier because it failed? No. They stuck it in a warehouse and paid someone to babysit it while drinking tea.
( M3rx likes the Asian ladies, Mon 27 Feb 2012, 16:06, closed)

They paid someone, when they already have countless soldiers already on the base that they can boss around and force to do any menial task?

( BraynDedd Natasha Kaplinsky's labia majora, Mon 27 Feb 2012, 16:23, closed)

Let's face it:
they could have got someone from the RAF Regiment to steal them and sell them to his spotty mate.
( Enzyme is powered by sunlight, Tue 28 Feb 2012, 16:33, closed)

After the staggering amount of money the MoD spent on Nimrod spy planes
(£4Billion), only to decommision them before they've even flown a mission, I'm not in the least surprised, sadly.
( LemonEntryMyDearWatson This time, Moriarty, the hand is on the other foot, Mon 27 Feb 2012, 19:41, closed)