Richard Lardner – (Associated Press) – WASHINGTON – September 15, 2011 – An Afghan-owned security company accused of operating an illicit protection racket received “a slap on the wrist’’ from the Defense Department despite ample evidence of wrongdoing, according to a senior House Democrat critical of the military’s efforts to combat corruption in Afghanistan.
The complaint from Representative John Tierney of Massachusetts, a Democrat, were detailed in a letter to Defense Secretary Leon Panetta. The complaint sets the stage for a contentious congressional hearing set for today on how aggressively the Pentagon is holding contractors in war zones accountable for fraud and bribery.
In the letter, Tierney summarizes the findings an investigation he led last year that concluded that Ahmad and Rashid Popal, the owners of the Watan Group, and Haji Ruhullah, a former assistant manager for the company, bribed local Afghan officials and used heavy weapons prohibited by the $2.16 billion Army transportation contract they were working under. They all denied funneling money to the Taliban, Tierney said, but evidence gathered by his staff “raised doubts about those claims.’’
