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Scam
One thing I really like about the web is that I am free to write
whatever I like. Sometimes I like to write stories, or essays.
But in this article, I'd like to tell you about an example
of unethical behavior. By the way, if anyone reading this
article considers it libel, please feel free to take me to court.
I will be happy to defend every single word in this article.
This article is about the company Physical Optics Corporation,
POC.
This is a company located in Torrance, CA. It is supposed to be
a scientific R&D company. The company employs over 130 scientists and
engineers. And what are these researchers doing?
According to anonymous sources, this company makes its money
by writing SBIR proposals to the government. If you are not
familiar with the SBIR, that is a small business proposal that
the government funds in order to stimulate small businesses. The
grants range from $50,000 to $1 million dollars.
The average POC employee is expected to write over 50 grants per
year. Every scientist knows that writing 50 grants per year is
ridiculous! Even a good scientist will have maybe 3-4
worthwhile ideas per year, so it is possible
that 1 individual may generate 4 grants per year. But 50
is just impossible. Basically, POC employees have a form grant, that they just modify
slightly, and send off.
According to the SBIR program, once you get the grant, you are supposed to do research. However,
this is not what POC does. Instead, POC survives by writing
the proposals, without doing the research. They have plenty of friends in
the government that make sure that their proposals are accepted.
So that's the scam: the company POC is a proposal mill that
churns out meaningless proposals, generating enough cash to
pay their employees and make a nice profit on the side. It's taking
advantage of government corruption, and shows that even a
well-intentioned program such as the SBIR program can turn into
free cash for crooks.
comments? You can email me at :
mattinjersey@yahoo.com