As part of doing business with the federal government, large U.S. corporations receive annual multi-million-dollar contributions to their private pension funds.
About $3.3 billion in taxpayer funds were paid in 2010 by federal agencies to the pension programs of 18 of the biggest federal contractors, according to the Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW), a government watchdog group.
The government contributions represent reimbursements of monies paid by the contractors to their employee pension plans, regardless of whether the pension investment decisions made or lost money.
Lockheed Martin, the largest federal contractor, received $988 million in 2010 for its pension payments. Raytheon was given $667 million, Northrop Grumman $529 million and Boeing $428 million.
CAGW recommended that the government make several changes to its policies for funding contractor pension programs. Among the suggestions was a requirement “that market losses in invested pension funds be recuperated from the contracting companies which make the investment decisions, instead of taxpayers.”
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