Major problems found in Iraq spending
By RICHARD LARDNER – June 7, 2009
WASHINGTON (AP) — This is one Christmas gift U.S. taxpayers don’t need.
Construction of a $30 million dining facility at a U.S. base in Iraq is scheduled to be completed Dec. 25. But the decision to build it was based on bad planning and botched paperwork. The project is too far along to stop, making the mess hall a future monument to the waste and inefficiency plaguing the war effort, according to an independent panel investigating contracting in Iraq and Afghanistan.
In its first report to Congress, the Wartime Contracting Commission presents a bleak assessment of how tens of billions of dollars have been spent since 2001. The 111-page report, obtained by The Associated Press, documents poor management, weak oversight, and a failure to learn from past mistakes as recurring themes in wartime contracting.
The report is scheduled to be made public Wednesday at a hearing held by the House Oversight and Government Reform’s national security subcommittee.
U.S. reliance on contractors has grown to “unprecedented proportions,” says the bipartisan commission, established by Congress last year. More than 240,000 private sector employees are supporting military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. Thousands more work for the State Department and U.S. Agency for International Development.
But the government has no central data base of who all these contractors are, what services they provide, and how much they’re paid. The Pentagon has failed to provide enough trained staff to watch over them, creating conditions for waste and corruption, the commission says.
In Iraq, the panel worries that as U.S. troops depart in larger numbers, there will be too few government eyes on the contractors left to oversee the closing of hundreds of bases and disposal of mountains of federal property.
At Rustamiyah, a seven-acre forward operating base turned over to the Iraqis in March, the military population plunged from 1,490 to 62 in just three months. During the same period, the contractor population dropped from 928 to 338, leaving more than five contractors for every service member.
In Afghanistan, where President Barack Obama has ordered a large increase of U.S. troops, existing bases will have to expand and new ones will be built — without proper oversight unless the Pentagon rapidly changes course.
One commander in Afghanistan told the commission he had no idea how many contractors were on and off his base on a daily basis. Another officer said he had property all over his installation but didn’t know who owned it or what kind of shape it was in.
There are questionable construction projects in Afghanistan, too. The commission visited the New Kabul Compound, a building intended to serve as headquarters for U.S. forces in Afghanistan. But members saw cracks in the structure, broken and leaking pipes, sinking sidewalks and other defects.
“The Army should not have accepted a building in such condition,” the report says.
The commission cites concerns with a massive support contract known as “LOGCAP” that provides troops with essential services, including housing, meals, mail delivery and laundry.
Despite the huge size and importance of the contract, the main program office managing the work for both Afghanistan and Iraq has only 13 government employees. For administrative help, it must rely on a contractor.
KBR Inc., the primary LOGCAP contractor in Iraq, has been paid nearly $32 billion since 2001. The commission says billions of dollars of that amount ended up wasted due to poorly defined work orders, inadequate oversight and contractor inefficiencies.
In one example, defense auditors challenged KBR after it billed the government for $100 million in costs for private security even though the contract prohibited the use of for-hire guards.
KBR has defended its performance and criticized the commission for making “biased” statements against the company.
“As we look back on what we’ve done, we’re real proud of being able to go into a war theater like that as a private contractor and support 200,000 troops,” William P. Utt, chairman of the Houston-based KBR, said in May interview with AP reporters and editors.
KBR is also linked to the dining hall construction snafu, although the commission faults the military’s planning and not the contractor. With American forces scheduled to be out of Iraq by the end of 2011, the U.S. will use the new facility for two years at most.
In July 2008, the Army said a new dining facility was badly needed at the Camp Delta forward operating base because the existing one was too small, had a saggy ceiling, poor lighting and an unsanitary wooden floor.
KBR was awarded a contract in September. Work began in late October as American and Iraqi officials were negotiating the agreement setting the dates for the U.S. troop withdrawal
But during an April visit to Camp Delta, the commission learned that the existing mess hall had just been renovated. The $3.36 million job was done by KBR and completed in June 2008. Commission staff toured the renovated hall “without seeing or hearing of any problems or shortfalls,” the report says.
The decision to push ahead with the new hall was based on paperwork that was never updated and a failure to review the need for the project after the security agreement was signed. Most of the materials have been ordered and construction is well under way. That means canceling the project would save little money because KBR would have a legitimate claim for payment based on the investment it has already made.
The commission urges commanders in Iraq to review thoroughly all ongoing construction and improvement projects and only continue those essential to the life, health and safety of U.S. troops. (click HERE for original article)
Other Related Posts From Ms Sparky
- Five Individuals Indicted in a Fraud Conspiracy Involving Exports to Iran of U.S. Components Later Found in Bombs in Iraq (Updated)
- Former U.S. Army Major Pleads Guilty to Bribery Related to Contracting in Support of Iraq War
- Former U.S. Army Major Pleads Guilty to Money Laundering Charge Related to Contracts Supporting Iraq War
- Former Army Major Eddie Pressley and wife Eurica found guilty on 22 charges
- Gladly pay you on Tuesday for a CHU today – DynCorp’s pay problems continue
They never learn. There was one guy last year who raise hell with everyone up as far as Mike Mayo because KBR outlawed the use of non-conforming water heaters in 2006 and as late as 2008 they were still buying the same water heaters, deemed unsafe and non-conforming by a KBR red border alert. The DIDOG and DCMA webbsites both describe FRAUD as buying non-conforming equipment. The water heaters, elements and thermostats were all non-comnforming and they just kept buying them because of the business as usual attitude towards ignoring safety and just doing what they want the way they want to.
I have heard of trucks worth of equipment being sent to the dump because it was damaged in transit whether through mis-loading or IED impacts. No Loss, Damage and Destruction, LDD forms were filled out or filed, the stuff was simply thrown out because it was damaged and the bosses did not feel like doing the right paperwork to account for it and now they are trying to find things that were signed into bases and never signed out to any work order.
Why don’t we start reading the orderforms and seeing who signed for the equipment last and start asking questions there, blackball them from ever holding a CAC card again or working on any Fed, State or Local tax paid contracts again and see the look of fear in their eyes as they watch the free money train depart without them, I am certain they will remember exactly where the stuff went and who ordered or allowed it. A little accountability can go a long way if used with the right incentives.
Jims thoughts said,on June 8th, 2009 at 10:00 am
Why don’t we start reading the orderforms and seeing who signed for the equipment last and start asking questions there, blackball them from ever holding a CAC card again or working on any Fed, State or Local tax paid contracts again
Wouldn’t that require a thread of common decency and ethics?
I have heard of people being terminated on those grounds but it usually was not the individual(s) responible…..
what I would like to say, the KBR company in my opinion the best company in the world. because was given me bread about twelve year in the end I left voluntarily because I am not accustomed to this way of work is not important to know what work it is important who you know.
spending should be about not speak, because employees do not care of the government of things and when you try to explain manager or supervisor on this said, what you want non stop looking inventory and finally says son here is the war who cares if that disappears thing or wardrobe or drill or a tool to anyone will not care but at the end of each contract, while they did not know you have all that delivered the kind of things you are liable and which are made that or otherwise all you have to payer, but who cares KBR company will pay . Huston to know whom they have set for supervisor and managers surely would lose job, most of these government things go to garbage. and employees to and do not see, because listening supervisors and managers, I am from Bosnia but when I see such a relationship to work to in the wrong , normal employees can not fix or give good suggested . For that situation are responsible supervisors and managers. and perhaps we will not believe that there is more administration and that includes supervisor and manager, while in the field have some 30 percent of the workforce, in the offices is definitely seventy percent, and sadly that these people lose jobs when the administration will be of great importance
Admir, the tax payers care. You are Bosnian and so do not pay the taxes which fund the war, we do and our families and freinds do. I was in Fallujah when Mike Mayo stated there was some $1.5 Billion missing but most was being found or looked for at least, that was about April of last year, that is $1.5 Billion of our money that we want to make sure is accounted for and those little things such as a $300 drill, $5,000 welding rig, $10,000 of office supplies and more which were thrown away or just wasted. You have made good money from the company and that is good, we are paying for your wages and our own even though it is tax free we are still paying land tax and other forms of taxes on our savings and properties back in the US.
I am sorry you felt that you had to leave because nobody was going to do anything but I have seen 4 major failures brought to light and get resolved correctly because some people went over the heads of management and made them look like fools or worse to their bosses on larger bases, the main manaers hire scapegoats who will hide thingsand eventually take the fall leaving the higher levels clear to say they wee unaware of anything. Contacting the higher levels and making it clear that they are fully aware is the best way to make sure your local manager starts doing the right thing and don’t even waste time on HR on many camps, the ons here at TQ are so close with management that nobody goes to them with anything any more because they know it will be lost in paperwork in order to keep things going as they always have.
A professional company tracks things and hires professional people, not just local residents near the company who cannot get any other kind of work and are unfit for the jobs they are charitably given. If KBR were professional, they would have noticed the missing materials sooner and made it right instead of having others find it and have to fight KBR to make it right. People such as the man in Afghanistan who was convicted and jailed for selling fuel outside the wire and lying on the inventory would neve have been able to sell the third load becausehe would have been caught and fired after the first or second.
Many in KBR are fully aware of what is going on but they simply want it to continue going on and they create levels of deniability, that makes them a bad company and those of us who stay and uncover it and fight it will not leave until we have enough evidence to prove such.
Has anyone noticed that Camp Delta is only 35 miles from the Iranian border. Wonder if it was truly an accident or oversight that the new DFAC is being built?
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/05/04/AR2008050401736.html
Ms Sparky’s Response:
Hmmmmm! Good observation. Sometimes I think the DoD wants us to thik they are inept so they get away with more. The whole “it’s easier to ask forgiveness than permission” thing!
i was wandering if the admir that left the message was also known as (water boy)?? i was at camp cedar with him..
Ms Sparky’s Response:
He says no.
I am not bein the camp chedar I was be in another base and do not want to speak about it, i agree to everything that is Jims said
i agree that Americans pay taxes, but I am not guilty and I’m going just for a better life in every case of 12 years is not a little to spend in KBR company, and I still think that it is at least for me the best company in the world,
Ms Sparky’s Response:
Thanks. I’ll pass that on.
I was not in that camp cedar, all agree that is jims said, and the truth is that Americans pay taxes, but I am not guilty and I go for a better life to a better job of oversight, but what I will say if you gave a good payment you have and deserve. and not only that waiting to past that day and at the end sign in 12 hours, and of course do not throw things, because all of those things someone paid
Ms Sparky’s Response:
Thanks