Security company CEO is a “no-show” at CWC hearing
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USAID ducks legal responsibility
The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) also came in for extended criticism when David Blackshaw, the division chief for overseas security, told the commission that his agency was not legally responsible for the actions of armed guards that accompanied their grantees. “The role of the USAID’s SEC’s International Security Programmes Division is limited to advice and counsel,” Blackshaw told the commissioners.
The commissioners were incensed. Several of them pulled out copies of a USAID Office of Inspector General report on private contracting that was issued last month that stated a third of USAID private security contracts in Afghanistan have no standard security requirements.
Commissioner Christopher Shays, a former Republican member of Congress from Connecticut, alleged that USAID was trying to “wash their hands” of any responsibility.
“God forbid something would happen with a violent accident in Afghanistan that would affect our national policy in Afghanistan and you would try that ridiculous line of argument,” said Commissioner Robert Henke, a former Assistant Secretary for Management in the Department of Veterans Affairs, said. “It won’t work.”
“This commission was going to ask him, under oath, why his firm agreed in January to assume private security responsibilities at FOB Shield with several hundred guards that had not been properly vetted and approved,” said Michael Thibault, one of the co-chairs of the commission and a former deputy director of the Defence Contract Audit Agency.
“This commission was also going to ask Mr. Torres why he personally flew to Iraq, to FOB Shield, and strongly suggested that Torres AES be allowed to post the unapproved guards, guards that would protect American troops, and then to ‘catch-up the approval process’.”
*This article was produced in partnership with CorpWatch -www.corpwatch.org (click HERE for the original article)
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Other Related Posts From Ms Sparky
- Private security contractors get a 3 month reprieve from suspension order in Afghanistan
- CWC hearing – Subcontracting: Who’s Minding the Store?
- Commission On Wartime Contracting Hearing September 14, 2009 Video
- Security guards under investigation leaving Afghanistan
- Security assigned to watch guards at Kabul embassy + link to Kabul Hazing PICS
