Buck Naked Politics: Oversight Committee Probes Deaths & Injuries Resulting from Shoddy Work by KBR and Other Contractors in Iraq

by Deb Cupples | We taxpayers keep paying top dollar to private contractors for services at home and abroad. The least those contractors can do is get the job done well and thoroughly.

Back in May, my co-blogger Damozel covered a New York Times piece discussing warnings going as far back as 2004 that shoddy electrical work had been causing fires and even electrocution of American troops on military bases in Iraq. A few days ago, the NY Times reported that electrical problems were even worse than previously reported: this article has a big color picture of ruins at a U.S. Marine base near Falluja, which lost 10 buildings in June due to electrical fire.

Congressman Henry Waxman's House Oversight Committee is (once again) demanding answers. In a July 18 letter to Defense Secretary Robert Gates, Waxman wrote:

"According to the February 2007 'Iraq Safety Assessment' prepared by the Defense Contract Management Agency (DCMA), there were 283 electrical fires at facilities maintained by KBR in a five-month period from August 2006 through January 2007.

"One of these electrical fires killed two people at Forward Operating Base Speicher, while another destroyed the largest dining facility in Iraq at Camp Al Asad. The DCMA report described the widespread electrical problems at KBR facilities in Iraq as a 'major challenge' and the 'primary safety threat, theater wide.' The report asserted that 'the three primary causes of these fires' are '[i]mproper insulation, substandard equipment purchases (such as light fixtures), and heavy usage.'"

KBR stands for Kellogg, Brown & Root, which was a Halliburton subsidiary until last year, when Halliburton announced that it had completely separated from KBR (likely due to all the bad press and potential legal liability that KBR was amassing).

Among other things, KBR allegedly overcharged us taxpayers by millions for gasoline, troops' meals, sodas, and laundry services -- as well as questionably spending huge amounts of money [e.g., $7500 per month] to lease SUVs for its employees. (See GAO, CNN, GovTrack, and Senate hearing transcript.)

Congressman Waxman's letter to Secretary Gates continues:

"Although this report was issued over a year ago, its findings appear to have been ignored until recently. In a May 5, 2008, e-mail, a DCMA official who worked on the report wrote that 'lack of action ... results in direct liability issues for our Agency.'"

In other words, we taxpayers may have to compensate victims or their families for deaths or injuries caused by contractors' shoddy work. Does that seem fair?

Make no mistake, someone should pay if shoddy work caused deaths and injuries, but why should it be we taxpayers?

Why not hold accountable those contractor(s) that actually did the shoddy work?

Back in March, Congressman Waxman wrote the Defense Department, 1) asking "about the deaths of 12 service members in Iraq from accidental electrocutions," and 2) asking for "all reports and communications regarding improper electrical grounding in facilities in Iraq."

As of July 18, the Defense Department still hadn't completely fulfilled Waxman's request.

You can see Rep. Waxman's very detailed letter here. The Oversight Committee Web site also has links to other documents.

Related Buck Naked Politics Posts:

* The High Costs of Private Contractors

* How KBR Got Paid $1 Billion in Non-Credible Costs

* "Billions over Baghdad": Poor Accounting Enabled Waste & Fraud

* Contractor Supplied Bad Ammo, Gets Hundreds of Millions

* DoD Rewarding Bad Contractor Performance?

* Justice Dept. Official Turned Blind Eye to Contractor Fraud?

* Inspector General Blocked Investigations re: Waste and Fraud?

* Embassy in Iraq: Waste, Bad Planning & Contractor Fraud?

* Private Insurers Milking Medicare