» 2011 » July Ms Sparky

Wake up and smell the coffee DoD!

Posted on: July 22nd, 2011 at 5:08 am — by Forseti

How the DoD Allows Contractors to Grade Themselves and Write Their Own Contract Terms

Dina Rasor - ( Truthout | Solutions) – July 20, 2011 – The Department of Defense (DoD) Inspector General’s (IG) office recently found that the Marine Corps allowed their contractors for a vital troop protection system to act as government employees, including directing and evaluating government employees’ work, grading their own work and writing up requirements for the follow-on contract. The contractors then bid on those requirements and won multimillion-dollar contracts.

The IG issued a report this month with the mundane title, “Contract Management of Joint Logistics Integrator Services in Support of Mine Resistant Ambush Protected Vehicles Needs Improvement.” The report points out, in glaring examples, how the Marine Corp allowed two companies to infiltrate and control two very important logistics and maintenance contracts.

The program where this abuse occurred could not be more crucial to the troops. The program does maintenance support and logistics for the Mine Resistant Ambush Protected vehicles program (MRAP). MRAP is a $17.6 billion program to build or modify military vehicles with a V-shaped hull to prevent or reduce troop injuries and death from IEDs (Improvised Explosive Devices). MRAP was a rushed program because it had the potential to save lives and prevent severe injury at a time when IEDs were wreaking havoc on American troops in Iraq and Afghanistan.

From the report:

On May 2, 2007, the Secretary of Defense designated the MRAP program as the highest priority DoD acquisition program and stated that all options to accelerate the production and fielding of the MRAP capability to the theater should be identified, assessed and applied where feasible. To reduce the burden on units receiving MRAP vehicles, JPO [Joint Program Office] MRAP established a forward presence in Iraq, Afghanistan, Qatar and Kuwait. According to the Joint Supportability Plan, the JPO MRAP Forward includes personnel from the JPO, JLI [Joint Logistics Integrator] and MRAP vehicle original equipment manufacturers to form an integrated team to stand-up, coordinate and execute JPO MRAP operations in theater.

(Read the rest of the story here…)

Posted in GOV. CONTRACTORS, Politics, Reports & Investigations. Tags: DoDIG*, FAR, Jacobs Technology, JPO (Joint Program Office), Lockheed Martin, MRAP, SAIC, SOP (Standard Operating Procedure). 1 Comment »

KBR’s legacy to our MNF-I allies, cancer causing chemicals and fear

Posted on: July 21st, 2011 at 12:38 pm — by Forseti

Iraq veteran is cancer ‘timebomb’

Catherine Allen – (Chad) – UK – July 21, 2011 – AN Iraq War veteran from Skegby has spoken of his fear he may develop cancer as a result of the deadly chemicals he was exposed to while serving in Basra.
Cpl Jon Caunt (35) undertook five tours of Iraq between 2003 and 2007 when he and other members of the RAF Regiment were exposed to a distinctive orange powder at the Qarmat Ali water treatment plant.

British troops, who were working alongside US forces and staff from private contractor Kellogg, Brown and Root (KBR), did not know the orange powder was in fact Sodium Dichromate, which contains a cancer-causing compound.

It is banned in many countries and had been used to stop pipes rusting.

The soldiers were responsible for restoring the plant so Iraqi people could resume oil production in a bid to rebuild their economy after the war – but they had no protection from the chemical and would often sleep on the ground surrounded by it.

Cpl Caunt said: “You have got to understand that we were breathing it in, we were firing in it and it was blown up by the wind – this stuff was everywhere.”

(Read the rest of the story here…)

Posted in A Soldiers Story, CHEMICAL AND OTHER EXPOSURES, GOV. CONTRACTORS, KBR, KBR Investigations, Lawsuits Against KBR, Qarmat Ali Lawsuits, Reports & Investigations, RIO-KBR, Sodium Dichromate @ Qarmat Ali. Tags: Cpl Jon Caunt, KBR, Mike Doyle, Royal Air Force, Sgt Andy Tosh, Sodium Dichromate. No Comments »

US court denies key petition by Kuwait’s Agility (Updated 07-22-2011)

Posted on: July 21st, 2011 at 3:09 am — by Forseti

Matthew Bigg – (Reuters) - ATLANTA - July 20, 2011 – A U.S. appeals court on Wednesday denied a petition by Agility in a legal setback for the Kuwaiti logistics firm that faces prosecution on charges it defrauded the U.S. Army in multibillion-dollar contracts.

Agility was the largest supplier to the U.S. Army in the Middle East during the war in Iraq after the Sept. 11 attacks with contracts worth around $8.5 billion.

The case is one of the largest military fraud cases in U.S. history and is politically sensitive in both Kuwait and Washington.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit denied a “Writ of Mandamus” petition in a decision that, coupled with a ruling last week, appears to effectively clear the way before a pretrial phase of the case.

It also appears to spell an end to around 18 months of legal wrangling over whether the Department of Justice correctly served its indictment against the company.

(Read the rest of the story here…)

Posted in Agility/PWC/GCC, GOV. CONTRACTORS, Indictments, Convictions & Arrests. Tags: Agility DGS Holdings, Agility/PWC/GCC, DoJ*, U.S. Department of Justice (DoJ), U.S. District Judge Thomas Thrash. 2 Comments »

Money laundering, corruption & financial crimes isn’t just for USG contractors in Afghanistan

Posted on: July 20th, 2011 at 12:59 pm — by Forseti

Karzai barred US advisers from Afghan central bank

Uneven Afghan help with regulating financial sector
Alleged financial crimes not pursued
Kabul airport VIPs bypass regular customs checks

Susan Cornwell – (Reuters) – WASHINGTON – July 20, 2011 – Afghan President Hamid Karzai has banned U.S. government advisers from the Afghan central bank, where they have worked for years to help develop the country’s financial sector, a U.S. watchdog said on Wednesday.

The atmosphere at the bank had become “hostile” for U.S. government advisers helping to train Afghan bank regulators and identify money laundering and other financial crimes, said an audit by the Special Inspector General For Afghanistan Reconstruction, known as SIGAR.

The special inspector general was created by Congress to scrutinize how U.S. aid to Afghanistan is spent.

The pushback from Karzai was part of a pattern of uneven Afghan cooperation with U.S. efforts to bolster Afghanistan’s fledgling financial institutions and safeguard billions in U.S. cash that has poured into the country during the Afghan war, the SIGAR audit said.

(Read the rest of the story here…)

Posted in Reports & Investigations. Tags: Abdul Qadir Fitrat, Afghanistan, Fraud Waste and Abuse, Hamid Karzai, Kabul International Airport, SIGAR. 6 Comments »

Iraq to fly home despairing Sri Lankan workers

Posted on: July 20th, 2011 at 9:23 am — by Forseti

Lara Jakes – Associated Press – July 13, 2011 – BAGHDAD—A group of Sri Lankan laborers who tried to kill themselves after months of begging for food and shelter when their employer went out of business will each be given $3,000 and flown home for free, the Iraqi government said Wednesday.

Despairing because they hadn’t been paid, 10 of the Sri Lankans climbed a building in Iraq’s southern Maysan province and threatened to hang themselves in May before local officials intervened and promised to help. The Sri Lankans are among about 6,000 foreign workers in Iraq, most of whom live in meager conditions, get little pay and cannot afford to buy plane tickets to leave.

But with about 900,000 unemployed Iraqis, the government has been looking at ways to send foreign workers home to free up jobs for citizens.

(Read the rest of the story here…)

Posted in Iraq Human Trafficking. Tags: Human Trafficking, Sri Lanka, Talat Hussam-Din Co.. 3 Comments »

Former CSA employee Barry S. Szafran pleads guilty to accepting kickbacks

Posted on: July 18th, 2011 at 1:39 pm — by Forseti

The press release does not list the name of the “prime contractor” but I was able to find this information on JobNet:

Combat Support Associates, Camp Arifjan, Kuwait / Alarm Services Manager
Name Barry Szafran
Employer   Combat Support Associates, Camp Arifjan, Kuwait
Position   Alarm Services Manager
Dates   February, 2008 – Current
Job Category Full Time
Responsibilities   an 11 MAN team responsible for the repair, installation, and maintenance of over 300 Fire Alarm Control Systems. Managed and coordinated all plans of new construction and building conversions / refits in accordance with NFPA 25, 72 and 101 (Click HERE for link)

CSA employees past and present, feel free to provide any info you have and would like to share regarding this. ~Forseti

Jewett City Man Pleads Guilty to Accepting Kickbacks From Military Supplier in Kuwait
David B. Fein, United States Attorney for the District of Connecticut, announced that Barry S. Szafran, 49, of Jewett City, waived his right to indictment and pleaded guilty today before United States District Judge Mark R. Kravitz in New Haven to one count of illegally receiving a gratuity. The charge relates to Szafran’s accepting kickbacks from a foreign supplier of fire safety systems to a military base in Kuwait in Iraq.

According to court documents and statements made in court, Szafran was the civilian fire alarm manager at Camp Arifjan, Kuwait, for a prime contractor for the U.S. Army on a government-owned, contractor-operated base. In this position, Szafran had a leading role in maintaining an adequate supply of repair/replacement parts for fire safety systems for the facility. In pleading guilty, Szafran admitted that, from April 2008 to April 2009, he repeatedly provided favorable treatment to a local parts vendor, which was a subcontractor for a larger supplier, in connection with certain contracts. During this time period, Szafran received things of value from the local parts vendor, including a round-trip airplane ticket between Kuwait and Rhode Island, meals and scented candles.

(Read the rest of the story here…)

Posted in Civilian Contractors, Combat Support Ass. (CSA), GOV. CONTRACTORS, Indictments, Convictions & Arrests. Tags: Barry S. Szafran, Camp Arifjan, Combat Support Ass. (CSA). 18 Comments »

Spelling it out for contractors & other news

Posted on: July 17th, 2011 at 8:42 am — by Forseti

Three former U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) employees and two foreign contractors are charged in a 54-count Indictment for their alleged roles in a bribery and kickback scheme and for defrauding the U.S. government in connection with the award of more than $50 million in USACE construction and infrastructure contracts in Iraq… ~ U.S. Attorney’s Office, District of New Jersey

Kuwait’s Agility says committed to resolve U.S. dispute
Eman Goma – (Reuters) – KUWAIT – July 17, 2011- Kuwaiti logistics firm Agility said it was committed to resolve the dispute with the U.S. Department of Justice (DoJ), following an adverse ruling last week, the firm said in a statement on Sunday.

“The company continues to believe the case involves a civil contract dispute and should not be a criminal matter,” Agility said in the statement. (Click HERE for article)

The Foreign Corrupt Practices Act: the Chamber of Commerce’s Campaign to Weaken the Act and a Potential Investigation into News Corp.
Bryan Rahija – (POGO) – July 16, 2011 – I’d wager that until this week, most Americans (except, of course, for the dutiful readers of this humble blog) probably hadn’t heard of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA). Now, as the ugly scandal involving News of the World unfolds, the 1977 statute has been thrust into the limelight.

The FCPA makes it illegal for U.S. companies to bribe foreign officials, and this week, several lawmakers have called on the Justice Department and Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to investigate whether News Corp., Rupert Murdoch’s media heavyweight and parent company of the now-shuttered News of the World, violated the Act.

Yesterday, CNN reported that Attorney General Eric Holder is looking these requests to investigate and other allegations:

“There have been serious allegations raised in that regard in Great Britain; there is an ongoing investigation,” Holder told reporters in Sydney, Australia.

“There have been members of Congress in the United States who have asked us to investigate those same allegations. And we are progressing in the regard using the appropriate federal agencies in the United Sates.”

(Read the rest of the story here…)