Life and Times of a Rounding Error, for real

[Covenant]

What's a few zeroes here and there anyway?

By Jim Wolf

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Defense Department said on Thursday it was awarding what might have been its richest-ever single contract at $24 billion, but it erred by a factor of 1,000.

The supposedly huge deal, listed in the Pentagon's daily contract digest, was said to have gone to Boeing Co for engineering support of the Air Force's KC-135 refueling fleet.

"No one at Boeing knows of a contract of anything of this magnitude," said Forrest Gossett, a company spokesman in St. Louis.

The Air Force referred callers to Tinker Air Force Base, Oklahoma, where the contract was handled. A base spokesman, Ralph Monson, said the real deal was for $24 million -- a difference of more than $23.9 billion.

"The correct figure was $24 million," he told Reuters, adding three extra zeros had been tacked on by mistake.

"No clue how," he said after checking with the base's bean counters. "Thanks for bringing it to our attention."

Genius! Kinda funny--not the sort of thing that'd keep going unnoticed, but it was pretty stupid mistake to make on such a big deal.

[Einhander Sn0m4n]

How the fuck do you make a THREE ORDERS OF MAGNITUDE error and it not get noticed till after the goddamn payout is awarded!?!?

[The Yosemite Bear]

Bushonomics, I mean how else do you explain the 6BILLION (want to pronaunce it like the late carl sagan) that's been completely LOST in Iraq.

[Phantasee]

Isn't this saying that the wrong number was only in a digest of contracts awarded? Which is to say, it was only a typo in a list of contracts, not in the actual contract? That would explain why no one knew about it at Boeing.

[Bounty]

How the fuck do you make a THREE ORDERS OF MAGNITUDE error and it not get noticed till after the goddamn payout is awarded!?!?

What makes you think money had already passed hands? The error seems to have been in the daily brief only.