Posted on: January 31st, 2011 at 12:26 pm — by Forseti
Ex-employee of Clifton defense contractor admits theft
PETER J. SAMPSON – The Record – January 31, 2011 – A former staff engineer at ITT Corp.’s Clifton facility admitted Monday that he stole a $50,000 frequency generator with military applications from the defense contractor and sold it on eBay.
Appearing before U.S. District Judge Anne E. Thompson in Trenton, Vincent J. Corey, 38, of Union City pleaded guilty to charges of interstate transportation and transmission of stolen property. He faces up to 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine when he is sentenced on May 10.
Corey used his Defense Department clearance to access a secure area and steal the device from the River Road offices of the engineering and manufacturing firm, which provides “mission-critical products and services” to the U.S. military and its allies, authorities said.
He was caught on security cameras entering and leaving ITT with a duffel bag on July 25, and the following day he shipped the device to a California company using a fake name with which he had previously negotiated its sale for $20,000, authorities said. The FBI arrested him at work in November.
The device he stole is a type of generator that is used in the manufacturing process of other items to mimic radio frequencies of surface-to-air missiles. (Click HERE for original article)
Posted on: January 31st, 2011 at 4:50 am — by Forseti
When I read this article I immediately thought of children fighting on a roadtrip. Hopefully the government will stop the car or perhaps runaway train would be a more accurate description and discipline those bad children aka contractors. As for DCAA being strict, keep up the good work! ~Forseti
Contractors complain audit agency has gotten too strict
Marjorie Censer – January 31, 2011 – The defense industry is facing a changed — and some say more tense — relationship with the Defense Contract Audit Agency since the organization, under criticism from the Government Accountability Office, took steps to be more independent.
“While DCAA got criticized for being too lax, now they’ve gone to the other extreme,” said James J. Gallagher, a partner at McKenna Long & Aldridge.
The DCAA conducts audits meant to ensure the government gets a reasonable price for contracted services and supplies and that contractors are using the right methods, including accepted accounting and billing systems, to charge the government.
In fall 2009, the GAO released a report blasting the DCAA’s independence as compromised and concluding that the agency was failing to protect the public interest.
“They were trying to accommodate their customer, which is the DOD contracting community,” said Asif Khan, the GAO’s director for financial management and assurance, who noted that the agency of about 3,600 people was producing about 40,000 annual audits. “When they got pushback from the contractor . . . they let those findings drop.”
For instance, in one 2004 audit of a large Pentagon contractor, the DCAA found eight problems in the contractor’s accounting system. But the contractor objected, arguing the auditors didn’t understand the procedures, and the DCAA dropped the issue and labeled the system adequate. Later, the GAO wrote, the contractor’s work led to plumbing failures and electrical fires in an Iraq building.
Agility hopeful of settlement
Davos //Tom Arnold – January 30, 2011 – Agility, the region’s biggest logistics company, hopes to reach a settlement with the US government over allegations of fraud.
The case involves more than US$8 billion (Dh29.38bn) worth of food contracts with the Pentagon.
“We disagree [with the allegations] and feel very strongly we did the right thing,” said Essa al Saleh, the chief executive of Agility – Global Integrated Logistics, the company’s commercial arm, on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum’s annual meeting in Davos.
“We are very much working through the process and hopeful we can reach a settlement on those terms.” He declined to say how much a likely settlement would be.
US prosecutors filed a civil suit in November 2009 accusing Agility of defrauding the government by allegedly overcharging it more than $60 million in its $8.5bn food contracts.
Company profits fell by two thirds in the third quarter of last year compared with the same period in 2009 after it lost its position as the main logistics supplier to the US army in the Gulf.
An indictment by the US department of defence meant it was stripped of lucrative contracts to supply food to US troops in Kuwait, Iraq and Jordan.
Securing such deals following the US-led invasion of Iraq in the Second Gulf War helped to fast-track Agility’s expansion. (Click HERE for article)
Alleged Fort Hood shooter ruled ‘sane’: source Sig Christenson (AFP) – KILLEEN, Texas – January 27, 2011 – The US Army psychiatrist charged with killing 13 people in a shooting spree on a Texas army base has been ruled sane and thus fit for trial, a source familiar with the case said.
The ruling by a group of medical experts, called a sanity board, opens the door for a court martial that could end in the execution of Major Nidal Hasan, who was paralyzed from the neck down during the November 5, 2009 massacre.
Neither prosecutors nor retired Army Colonel John Galligan, a veteran military lawyer representing Hasan, 40, would confirm the board’s decision.
But Galligan suggested it went against his client, who worked at Fort Hood until the shooting.
“I’m not going to say what they ruled,” he told AFP. “I would just say this: I don’t think the report will be anything that will be an impediment to the charges from the government’s perspective.”
Hasan is charged with killing 13 people and wounding 32 others in a crowded Fort Hood deployment center. (Click HERE for article)
“There is no plan” That’s how an inspector general describes the $11 billion effort to build facilities for the Afghan army
Justin Elliott – Salon – January 26, 2011 – The United States is at risk of blowing over $11 billion on building facilities for the Afghan military because of waste and poor planning, according to the special inspector general for Afghan reconstruction.
Posted on: January 28th, 2011 at 11:26 am — by Forseti
de·fense con·trac·tor
[dih-fensor, especially for 7, 9,dee-fens][kon-trak-ter, kuhn-trak-ter] noun,verb
A company who contracts with the Department of Defense to furnish supplies or perform work at a certain price or rate. -Synonyms:
fraud, thief, malefactor, evildoer, transgressor, culprit, pander, felon, crook, hoodlum, gangster -Antonyms:
altruist, licit, honest, accountable, virtue, honor, integrity
Here are two great articles on Defense Contracting:
No Joking: Senator Franken Tough on Fraud Scott Amey – POGO – January 27, 2011 – Yesterday, the Senate Judiciary Committee tackled contractor accountability in a hearing entitled “TIME CHANGE — Protecting American Taxpayers: Significant Accomplishments and Ongoing Challenges in the Fight Against Fraud.” Fighting fraud in government contracts is becoming a hot topic and one that can be a win-win for agencies, politicians, and taxpayers.
During the hearing, Senator Al Franken (D-MN) pressed Lanny A. Breuer, Assistant Attorney General for the Department of Justice’s (DOJ’s) Criminal Division, on issues related to holding contractors to a high standard, investigating fraud, awarding contracts to companies that have committed fraud against the federal government, and the suspension and debarment system. He went on to mention and cite POGO’s Federal Contractor Misconduct Database.
Mr. Breuer described the differences between the work performed by DOJ and suspension and debarment offices, and stated “I agree with your premise that if you commit a fraud against the United States you shouldn’t have a right to continue doing business.” He also stated that he has three prosecutors in Iraq and Afghanistan (but I’m not sure if three prosecutors is enough). (Click HERE for article)
If A Dollar Falls in The Pentagon… Colin Clark – January 26th, 2011 – One of the more ingenious arguments against Defense Secretary Robert Gates program cuts and efficiencies was raised today after the House Armed Services Committee hearing. It went something like that old philosophical question: If a tree falls in a forest but there is no one there to hear it, is there a noise?”
For years, Pentagon officials have admitted that they really don’t know where their money is going because their financial systems just aren’t good enough to be audited with any hope of retuning results in which one might have a high degree of confidence.
So Rep. Randy Forbes, chairman of the HASC readiness subcommittee took the interesting leap of arguing that, since the Pentagon doesn’t really know where it’s money is being spent, then maybe it shouldn’t try to talk about efficiencies.
“If the Department of Defense does not know where our defense dollars are going, how then are they qualified to talk about efficiencies? Furthermore, if the Department of Defense does not even have mechanisms in place to perform the audits, how are they able to comply with the law? Finally, if all agencies are required to perform regular audits, how is the Department of Defense able to skirt this compliance? If we want to get serious about efficiencies, we need to first make it clear that the Department of Defense is not above the law, and, second, demand to know where our defense dollars are going,” he said in a statement after this morning’s hearing. (Click HERE for article)
A stolen laptop with employee and contractor information belonging to Houston-based engineering and construction firm KBR was reported to the New Hampshire Attorney General’s Office on January 21.
The date of theft was not mentioned, nor were the total number of individuals who had their names, dates of birth, addresses, Social Security Numbers and Employee ID numbers on the laptop, although the notification indicated that the laptop “may have contained” personal information of “some current and former” employees and contractors. Why do they write “may have?” Don’t they know what was on their own company laptop?
Ten of those affected were New Hampshire residents.
The notification doesn’t even indicate how or where or when the laptop was stolen, saying only that the company had “recently learned” of the theft and the theft had been reported to law enforcement.
This is why we need a mandatory notification law that includes specific elements, folks.
KBR’s letter to affected employees and contractors does not offer them any free services such as credit monitoring.
According to the company’s profile on its web site, KBR has more than 40,000 employees in 45 countries on five continents. (click HERE for the original post)
Keep in mind, if you’re like me and have moved and/or changed your email address since you worked for KBR, they may not have your current contact information and you may not have been notified. I have to ask, why is personal employee information on a laptop? Why isn’t it secured on a company server?
December 2010 we blogged about a stolen Wackenhut laptop with personal employee information on it and last year we blogged about SBH’s distribution of 269 employee names and social security numbers.
I have always been a proponent of credit monitoring and taking control of your credit reports. This is why and not knowing which current and former employees and contractors are affected I urge anyone who has worked for KBR in the past to get copies of their three credit reports, correct errors and monitor them closely.
Posted on: January 26th, 2011 at 4:48 am — by Forseti
Former Senior Employee with U.S. Military Contractor Sentenced to 37 Months in Prison for Bribery Scheme Related to Contracts Used to Support Iraq War
WASHINGTON – January 25, 2011 - A former senior employee of a U.S. military contractor was sentenced today by U.S. District Judge David Hittner in Houston to 37 months in prison for participating in a conspiracy to pay $360,000 in bribes to U.S. Army contracting officials stationed at a U.S. military base in Kuwait, announced Assistant Attorney General Lanny A. Breuer of the Criminal Division.
In addition, Judge Hittner ordered Dorothy Ellis, 53, of Texas City, Texas, to serve three years of supervised release following her prison term and ordered her to pay $360,000 in restitution. Ellis pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas on Sept. 2, 2010, to one count of conspiracy to bribe public officials.
The case against Ellis arose from a corruption probe focusing on Camp Arifjan, a U.S. military base in Kuwait. As a result of this investigation, 16 individuals, including Ellis, have been charged, of which 14 have pleaded guilty. These individuals include Ellis’s former boss and military contractor, Terry Hall, and several U.S. Army contracting officials, including former Army Majors James Momon and Christopher Murray.
According to court documents, from spring 2004 through fall 2007, Hall operated and had an interest in several companies, including Freedom Consulting and Catering Co. and Total Government Allegiance, which, at various times during this period, provided goods and services to the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) and its components. The goods and services were provided based on a blanket purchase agreement (BPA) to deliver bottled water and a contract to construct a security fence in Kuwait and elsewhere. A BPA is a type of contract by which the DoD agrees to pay a contractor a specified price for a particular good or service. Based on a BPA, the DoD orders the supplies on an as-needed basis. The contractor is then obligated to deliver the supplies ordered at the price agreed upon in the BPA. The term for such an order by the DoD is a “call.”
Posted on: January 25th, 2011 at 2:29 pm — by Ms Sparky
We were notified in April of 2010 of this standard operating practice at Kandahar. Is it just me or does it seem that a putting out a report a year later is too little to late? ~Ms Sparky
Smuggled workers on Afghan bases cause alarm
Sara A. Carter – National security correspondent – January 24, 2011 – Foreign workers without proper clearances or identification are being smuggled onto U.S. and NATO bases in Afghanistan, a breach in security that presents a serious threat to troops and civilian employees, according to documents and interviews with U.S. officials.International Security Assistance Force police documents obtained by The Washington Examiner charged employees for two contracting companies, Stallion Construction and Engineering and DynCorp International with skirting security procedures at Kandahar Airfield, and escorting undocumented foreign laborers onto the base without appropriate clearances or jobs.
Lured by recruiters in their home countries with promises of decent jobs, foreign workers from the Philippines flew on commercial flights into Kandahar Airfield where they were met by unscrupulous subcontractors who helped them bypass security measures to enter the base, according to the documents. (Read the rest of the story here…)
