Posted by D. Cupples | The U.S. State Department reportedly failed to manage a billion-dollar contract
with DynCorp International -- a contractor involved in the CivPol program, which trained Iraqi police forces. The State Department has also repeatedly failed to give the House Oversight Committee information on the DynCorp contracts, which the Committee has repeatedly asked for since March 2007.
.
Yesterday, the Committee wrote a letter to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, asking (again) for the information. In part, the letter states:
"Questions about the State Department’s management of the CivPol contract were raised by Stuart Bowen, the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction, at a February 15, 2007, hearing before the Oversight Committee. Mr. Bowen testified that DynCorp had performed unauthorized work at a residential camp for police trainers and that the State Department had failed to catch overcharges because of inadequate contractor management...."
Letter Excerpt (cont.)
"Following the February 15 hearing, Committee staff requested a briefing from State Department officials to discuss the State Department’s management and oversight of this program. During this briefing, which was held on March 5, State Department officials informed Committee staff that the Office of Civilian Police and Rule of Law, which manages the CivPol program, was in such disarray that they 'could not locate the contract file' for this billion-dollar contract.
"State Department officials also informed Committee staff that a single State Department Contract Officer Representative has been overseeing DynCorp contracts for over a decade, significantly longer than the Department typically allows a single official to oversee a government contractor. State Department officials reported that it was this official’s responsibility to maintain the contract file, and that he remained the head of the Office of Civilian Police and Rule of Law, despite his failure to maintain basic and critical information about the contractors under his management.
This is not the first time we taxpayers have had trouble with contractors or that executive-branch agencies have apparently failed to monitor (or investigate) contractors. See the BN-Politics' posts linked below.
* Blackwater Seeks More Tax Dollars, Govt. Corruption More Evident
* Blackwater Uses Fuzzy Math to Justify Costs
* Blackwater Hearing: Poor Media Coverage
* Govt. Contractors: Driving up War's Costs?
* Blackwater Took Iraqi Airplanes, CEO Misled Congress?
* Probe re: Embassy in Iraq & State Department Officials
* State Dept.'s Odd & Untimely Reactions to Blackwater Scandals
* State Dept. Staff Threatened for Cooperating with Congress re: Blackwater
* Inspector General Blocked Investigations re: Waste and Fraud?
* Have U.S. Officials Protected Blackwater?
* Justice Dept. Official Turned Blind Eye to Contractor Fraud?
* Interior Dept. Officials Allowed Oil Companies to Underpay Royalties
* Embassy in Iraq: Waste, Bad Planning, and Contractor Fraud?
* Time for Pentagon to Get Serious About Contractor Fraud
* Billions over Baghdad: Poor Accounting Allowed Waste & Fraud
Comments