» 2011 » October Ms Sparky

David Isenberg: Bad Pennies and Louis Berger Group

Posted on: October 21st, 2011 at 11:54 am — by Forseti

The Louis Berger Group, Inc.

David Isenberg – (Huffington Post) – October 20, 2011 – Who says the U.S. government doesn’t have a sense of humor, not to mention irony? Proof that it does can be seen in a recent, if little noted contract awarded to the Louis Berger Group, which is an international consulting firm of approximately 3,000 employees around the world who provide diverse multidisciplinary expertise including engineering, program and construction management and economic development services.

LB is not a small fish in the private military contracting pond. The recent final report (PDF) of the Commission on Wartime Contracting in Iraq and Afghanistan identified it as one of 22 individually identifiable contractors that received at least a billion dollars each and account for 52 percent of contract awards from FY 2002 to FY 2011.

Louis Berger is also well known for problems executing past contracts. For example, According to Slate, in

November 2010, the Louis Berger Group agreed to a $69 million settlement after allegedly overcharging USAID by $15 million to $20 million over 10 years for development projects in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Sudan. Two former executives went to prison for fraud. Yet the settlement allowed the company to continue to working on government contracts.

This was despite a 2009 report by USAID’s inspector general that “urged USAID to make more use of its powers to suspend (cut off funds to an organization temporarily) and debar (cut them off permanently).”

(Read the rest of the story here…)

Posted in Civilian Contractors, Commission on Wartime Contracting (CWC), GOV. CONTRACTORS, Indictments, Convictions & Arrests, Reports & Investigations. Tags: Commission on Wartime Contracting, DoJ*, Louis Berger Group, Louis Berger/Black & Veatch, Office of Overseas Prosecutorial Development Assistance and Training (OPDAT), U.S. Department of Justice (DoJ), USAID. 1 Comment »

Derish M. Wolff, former CEO, Louis Berger Group surrenders to authorities today

Posted on: October 20th, 2011 at 10:54 am — by Forseti

Ex-CEO of Defense Department contractor charged with overbilling

BEHIND THE STORY: The former president and CEO of international engineering consulting firm Louis Berger Group surrendered early today to face a six-count grand jury indictment accusing him of over-billing the government millions of dollars in reconstruction contracts in Iraq and Afghanistan, federal authorities in Newark said.

Jerry DeMarco – (Cliffview Pilot) – October 20, 2011 – Derish M. Wolff has a court appearance scheduled this afternoon in U.S. District Court in Newark, they said.

Soon after Wolff — the nephew of company founder Louis Berger — became the firm‘s president in 2002, federal officials awarded a five-year $300 million contract to the Berger group for rebuilding power plants, schools and irrigation systems in Afghanistan.

(Read the rest of the story here…)

Posted in Civilian Contractors, Commission on Wartime Contracting (CWC), GOV. CONTRACTORS, Indictments, Convictions & Arrests, Reports & Investigations. Tags: Derish Wolff, Louis Berger Group, Louis Berger/Black & Veatch, Precy Pellettieri, Salvatore Pepe, SIGIR, USAID. 1 Comment »

Libyan government confirms Moammar Gadhafi’s death

Posted on: October 20th, 2011 at 6:45 am — by Forseti

SIRTE, Libya – Libya’s information minister said Moammar Gadhafi was killed Thursday when revolutionary forces overwhelmed his hometown, Sirte, the last major bastion of resistance two months after the regime fell. Amid the fighting, a NATO airstrike blasted a fleeing convoy that fighters said was carrying Gadhafi.

Libyan Prime Minister Mahmoud Jibril confirmed that Gadhafi has been killed.

“We have been waiting for this moment for a long time. Moammar Gadhafi has been killed,” Jibril told a news conference in the capital Tripoli.

Information Minister Mahmoud Shammam said he was told that Gadhafi was dead from fighters who said they saw the body.

“Our people in Sirte saw the body,” Shammam told The Associated Press. “Revolutionaries say Gadhafi was in a convoy and that they attacked the convoy.” He said the government head, Mustafa Abdul-Jalil, would officially confirm the death, but it was not clear when. Prime Minister Mahmoud Jibril, the number two in the administration, called a press conference for 4 p.m. local time (10 a.m EDT)

Al-Jazeera TV showed photos of a man resembling Gadhafi lying dead or severely wounded. Other military officials in the government also said Gadhafi was dead and several revolutionary groups fighting in Sirte also said he was either killed or captured. (Click HERE for article)

Click HERE for link to OnDeadline with continuing updates on this breaking news.

Posted in Miscellaneous. Tags: Col. Moammar Gadhafi, Libya, Prime Minister Mahmoud Jibril, Sirte. 3 Comments »

Senators, experts to watch for DOD contract reforms

Posted on: October 19th, 2011 at 2:10 pm — by Forseti

Matthew Weigelt – (Federal Computer) – October 19, 2011 – A member of the Wartime Contracting Commission asked senators to question the depth of support that defense officials have for major reforms in contracting operations during wartime or emergency situations — what are technically called “contingency operations.”

“Policies are easy to make. Implementation is really what counts,” Dov Zakheim, a commissioner and former comptroller of the Defense Department, told the Senate Armed Services Committee’s Readiness and Management Subcommittee.

(Read the rest of the story here…)

Posted in Commission on Wartime Contracting (CWC), GOV. CONTRACTORS, Politics, Reports & Investigations, Senate & House Committee Hearings. Tags: Commission on Wartime Contracting, DoD*, DOS*, Dov Zakheim, Frank Kendall, GAO, Rediness and Management Subcommittee, Senator Claire McCaskill*, Senator Jim Webb*, Senator Kelly Ayotte. No Comments »

U.S. Marine Corps Sergeant Christopher M. Cook, charged with theft and destruction of government property

Posted on: October 19th, 2011 at 9:49 am — by Forseti

(DoJ) – PHILADELPHIA – October 18, 2011 – Christopher M. Cook, a sergeant in the United States Marine Corps, was charged today by Indictment with theft and destruction of U.S. government property worth more than $750,000, announced United States Attorney Zane David Memeger. The charges arise from the defendant’s alleged theft of approximately 60,000 pound of aluminum helicopter landing pads and other metal objects worth approximately $760,000 from the Naval Air Station Joint Reserve Base in Willow Grove, Pennsylvania between August 2010 and February 2011. It is alleged that, on 22 separate occasions during that time frame, the defendant visited a local scrap metal dealer, and exchanged the stolen aluminum landing pads and other metal objects for more than $50, 000 in payments.

It is alleged that, after stealing and causing the destruction of this government property, defendant Christopher M. Cook then used the proceeds he received from the scrap dealer to pay for a variety of personal items including, among others, travel expenses, restaurants and other entertainment, clothing and jewelry, and repairs to his truck.

(Read the rest of the story here…)

Posted in Indictments, Convictions & Arrests, U.S. Marine Corps. Tags: Christopher M. Cook, Marine Wing Support Squadron 472, Naval Criminal Investigative Service, NCIS. No Comments »

Another day another lawsuit filed against KBR

Posted on: October 18th, 2011 at 7:07 am — by Forseti

Australian company sues US contractor on Iraq deal

Leonie Wood – (Sidney Morning Herald) – October 19, 2011 – AN AUSTRALIAN company that provides mass catering for US troops and other organisations in crisis regions is suing one of the biggest US military contractors for millions of dollars following the abrupt termination of an Iraq deal in mid-2003.

Morris Corporation, owned by Brisbane-based Robert McVicker (pictured), wants Kellogg Brown & Root (KBR) to hand over more than $US27 million that it says remains unpaid for work done in war-torn Iraq in 2003 when Morris and a Kuwaiti company jointly agreed to set up dining facilities for US forces.

Mr McVicker has told BusinessDay this is the second time the issue has gone to court after years of trying to extract repayment.

”To hell with KBR,” Mr McVicker said. ”I don’t have any respect for them at all. They think they are such a big global conglomerate and that we will buckle, but to hell with them.”

(Read the rest of the story here…)

Posted in GOV. CONTRACTORS, LAWSUITS, Lawsuits Against KBR, LOGCAP III - KBR. Tags: KBR, Kuwaiti Company for Process Plant Construction (KCPC), LOGCAP III, Morris Corporation, Robert McVicker. 1 Comment »

Ill Raytheon employee Renee-Nicole Douceur arrives in Christchurch, New Zealand

Posted on: October 17th, 2011 at 6:54 am — by Ms Sparky

CONCORD, N.H. — A sick New Hampshire woman who’s been working in the South Pole on Monday flew out of the research station she’d been living in for a year.

A plane carrying Renee-Nicole Douceur arrived in Christchurch, New Zealand, at 4:55 a.m. ET, NBC News reported.

Douceur is a Seabrook, N.H., resident who was based at the National Science Foundation’s research station in Antarctica.

She works as a manager for research station contractor Raytheon Polar Services Co.

Douceur has been asking for an emergency evacuation since Aug. 26, when she had what she and on-site doctors believed was a stroke. However, officials initially denied her request, saying that sending a rescue plane was too dangerous and that her condition wasn’t life-threatening.

Doctors she contacted for a second opinion say a tumor may have caused her vision and speech problems.

A storm delayed a flight attempt Saturday.
Story: Storm delays South Pole pickup of ailing American

In October 1999, a U.S. Air Force plane flew to the station to rescue Dr. Jerri Nielsen FitzGerald, who had diagnosed and treated her own breast cancer for months before her evacuation. After she had multiple surgeries in the United States, the cancer went into remission, but it returned. She died in 2009 at age 57. (click HERE for original article)