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Show I f 7 I An Inside View CONGRESSMAN DA MARRIOTT ' I6t0 Longworth Bldg. - .. i o J rv l i ' .WASHltlfetON. OX. 10515 7 Utah 2nd District : 11021225-1011 . , some of . the bureaucratic bungling that has occured.the sale of the AWACS Is a-nother. a-nother. With the unsettled conditions which persist In the Middle East Is there any question that the UJS. must aid its friends the Saudis in beefing up their national defense? de-fense? I think not. We must join together as a nation and a Congress and facilitate arms ' Sales to America's allies If the cancerous growth of communism Is to be prevented from spreading throughout the Middle East, and we must eliminate these needless delays in arms transfers which are leaving peaceful nations vulnerable to hostile agression. With interest rates soaring soar-ing and Inflation eating away at the buying power of the collar, operating capital Is becoming moe and moredlf-! moredlf-! flcult for businesses, especially es-pecially small businesses, to come by. Although most businesses pay their bills j within 30 days, a recent study ! by the General Accounting i Office shows that 39 per-! per-! cent of the Federal govern -! ment's bills are paid late. ; To make matters worse, government agencies often take early payment discounts dis-counts after a discount period has expired and re-Tuse re-Tuse to pay late penalties and interest on overdue bills. There is an appalling Inequality In-equality In a law which allows al-lows the government to get away with such irrespon-; irrespon-; slble behavior while prose- ! cuting private businesses i guilty of the same offense. The real crime however, 1 is the effect which such ac-; ac-; tion has on small businesses. business-es. Many firms selling to the government have suffered serious cash flow problems prob-lems because of slow gov- ernment payments, but small businesses which depend more upon a rapid cash flow for their livelihood than do larger Industries, have been hurt the most by slow payment pay-ment on Invoices submitted to federal agencies. The result of this government govern-ment inefficiency is that contractors con-tractors must provide the money which they fall to collect col-lect from delinquent ac-, ac-, counts from internal sources or through borrowing. While the amount may be small by Federal standards, it can be substantial to a contractor con-tractor with limited resources. resour-ces. Legislation is needed to provide legal Incentives to force agencies to pay their bills promptly or suffer the I business would face. There has been such a I bill introduced in the House. It would require the Federal government to pay Interest on accounts not paid within 30 days. The proposal does not authorize the interest to be charged back to the Treasury, Treas-ury, rather such payments must be made from the offending of-fending agencies' operating budget. Interest not paid after each successive 30 pay period would be added to the principal prin-cipal , amount of the debt and the Interest rate would be adjusted by the Secretary Secre-tary of the Treasury every six months. This is the same procedure now followed under un-der the Contract Disputes Act when a dispute Is settled set-tled against a private business busi-ness with overdue payments. In addition Federal agencies agen-cies would be allowed to take early payment discounts only if the payment is made during dur-ing the specified period. It Is time for the government govern-ment to be run by the same . standards it applies to tax-! tax-! payers on a prompt, and businesslike basis. The violent death of Egyptian Egypt-ian President Anwar Sadat following the overthrow of ; another close friend and ally to America the late Shah of Iran threatens to undermine . confidence in U.S. leadership In the Middle East. Some argue that those nations which have established ties with the Soviet Union are In a more stable position than those which have made al-lances al-lances with the UJS. Though recent political occurances in some Soviet satellite countries, Including Includ-ing Afghanistan and Poland, would seem to discredit that argument the fact that one of America's most valuable allies in the politically unstable un-stable Middle East region has fallen and another has suffered the loss of its leader could take away some of the appeal of a UJS. alliance. Do U.S. foreign policies in some way place its allies In a vulnerable position? The answer to that question ques-tion is not easy to answer. However, It is obvious that the UJS. has some characteristicsinherent character-isticsinherent in its Democratic Dem-ocratic societywhich a communist government does not have, and it is likely that these characteristics contribute to uncertainties and difficulties which Am erica's er-ica's aUIes must face. For example, when the Soviet leadership makes the decision to sell arms to a nation, that decision is not nearly as Involved as a like decision by the UJS. It does not require ratification by Congress, public opinion is not taken into consideration because the public has no say In government affairs and military appropriations are provided relatively unopposed. unop-posed. Allies to the Soviet Union benefit from this type of absolute Communism by promptly receiving military supplies without enfuring political po-litical delays which often occur oc-cur in deals with the UJS. Egypt has voiced several complaints about its dealing with the UjS. which are not altogether uncommon in this nation. Following Mr. Sadat's move for peace with Israel in 1978, the UjS agreed to sell Egypt about $3.5 billion in weapons and other military mili-tary gear to replace the country's aging arsenal of Soviet-made equipment obtained ob-tained before Egypt parted ways with the Soviets ln"1972. An additional $500 million In UJS. military equipment Is expected to be sold to Egypt this year. However, the UJS. Government Govern-ment provided the destination destina-tion but retained the vehicle for arrival so -to -speak, by granting just a little over half the credit needed for the purchase. In addition, the equipment has been arriving much more slowly than Egypt wants It. While doing business with the Russians, arms deliveries were frequently made within weeks after the agreement was settled because the Soviets were able to prepare for the exchange In advance. To the contrary, UjS. contracts con-tracts with civilian manufacturers manu-facturers often involve delays de-lays of months and sometimes some-times years. Of the $3.5 billion bil-lion of goods already or-, dered, Egypt has received less than half. This is but one example of |