Posted by D. Cupples | Yesterday, control of Iraq security contracts was moved from Sec. of State Condoleezza Rice to Defense Sec. Robert Gates. (New York Times) This comes a week after Rice testified before the House Oversight committee -- and failed to directly answer numerous questions about the State Department's failure to monitor contractors' job performance and billing.
In other words, Rice did a bad job -- so we'll let someone else try. Will the change do any good?
The Defense Department hasn't done a stellar job of protecting us taxpayers from unscrupulous contractors. Consider former Halliburton subsidiary KBR, for example. Years before the Iraq war, KBR paid $2 million to settle a Justice Department suit alleging that KBR had defrauded the government during work at a California military base back in the ‘90s. In 1997, the GAO found that KBR had over-run its estimated costs by 32% on work in the Balkans.
And yet, the Defense Department awarded KBR huge contracts relating to the Iraq war. How did KBR conduct itself under the new contracts?...
A 2004 House Oversight committee fact sheet indicates that Halliburton/KBR did (among other things) the following:
-Overcharged the taxpayers $61 million for gasoline imported to Iraq
-Charged the taxpayers $1.82 billion in unsupported costs
-Lost $18.6 million in government property
-Spent money extravagantly (e.g., on hotels, vehicles, soda...)
The Defense Contract Audit Agency urged the Army to withhold 15% of Halliburton/KBR's payments: the Army failed to do so for 8 months.
Halliburton/KBR isn't the only contractor that the Defense Department has apparently mishandled. For other examples of contractor problems and mishandling thereof, see the posts linked below.
See other bloggers' reactions at Memeorandum.
Related BN-Politics Posts:
* Contractor UNISYS in Trouble Again
* Defense Dept. Rewarding Bad Contractor Performance?
* Audit Red-Flags Contractor in Iraq
* Billions over Baghdad: Poor Accounting Allowed Waste & Fraud
* How the Defense Dept. Flushes Dollars Down Latrine
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