» 2011 » December Ms Sparky

Air Force tightens fraud prevention effort

Posted on: December 20th, 2011 at 8:51 am — by Forseti

: (U.S. Air Force photo/Staff Sgt. Tiffany Trojca)

As Air Force contracting professionals, we have an obligation to ensure our war fighters have what they need when they need it … at the best value for America’s taxpayers…~Maj. Gen. Wendy M. Masiello

(UPI) – WASHINGTON – December 19, 2011 - The U.S. Air Force reports it is coordinating efforts to prevent and mitigate procurement fraud and contractor misconduct.

The effort was expressed by the signing this month of a Memorandum of Understanding between the Air Force Office of Special Investigations, Air Force Contracting and Air Force General Council for Contractor Responsibilities.

“The Air Force has always been a leader in the procurement fraud fight and we are constantly enhancing our approach,” said David Robbins, the assistant deputy general counsel director of the Air Force Office of Procurement Fraud Remedies.

(Read the rest of the story here…)

Posted in GOV. CONTRACTORS. Tags: Air Force Office of Procurement Fraud Remedies, Maj. Gen. Wendy M. Masiello, U.S. Air Force. 1 Comment »

Marine general defends Dakota Meyer Medal of Honor; You got a problem with that?

Posted on: December 19th, 2011 at 3:59 pm — by Ms Sparky

General James F. Amos - photo Wikipedia

Andrew Malcolm – (Investors Business Daily) – December 19, 2011 – OK, civvies, listen up.

There has been a recent suggestion in some newspapers that fellow Marines may have padded their accounts of the heroism displayed by Sgt. Dakota Meyer during an ambush and six-hour battle in Afghanistan. The goal being to get the service the Medal of Honor in a dishonorable way.

According to the McClatchy report:

“Crucial parts of the story of Meyer’s deeds that the Marine Corps publicized and Obama described to the nation are untrue, unsubstantiated or exaggerated, according to dozens of military documents McClatchy Newspapers examined. Sworn statements by Meyer and others who participated in the battle indicate that he didn’t save as many people, kill as many enemy fighters or lead the final push to retrieve his dead comrades, as the record says.”

President Obama awarded the medal to Meyer during a White House ceremony in mid-September. And we detailed with photos the actions of Meyer in our story right here, in which he killed numerous enemy, rescued 36 fellow soldiers and recovered the bodies of four others.

This is what passes for a day’s work for our military folks, all volunteers.

Marine Commandant James Amos ordered an investigation and just released an eloquent statement of explanation, which we publish below here in full. (Read the rest of the story here…)

Posted in A Soldiers Story, Politics, Reports & Investigations. Tags: General James Amos, Sgt. Dakota Meyer, U.S. Marines Corps. 4 Comments »

Parts supplier, Kustom Products Inc., accused of fraud

Posted on: December 19th, 2011 at 7:54 am — by Forseti

A grand jury says Kustom Products Inc. of Coos Bay provided cheap knockoffs to the U.S. military

Jack Moran – The Register-Guard – December 17, 2011 – A federal grand jury has indicted five members of a Coos County family, charging that their company made millions by filling U.S. military defense contracts with defective knockoffs rather than government-specified parts for Army aircraft and ground vehicles.

Harold Ray Bettencourt Jr., his ex-wife and three of the couple’s adult children are scheduled to appear Monday in U.S. District Court in Eugene on charges of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and money laundering.

Two other longtime employees of Bettencourt’s Coos Bay company, Kustom Products Inc., face similar charges in the case.

The indictment comes more than a year after the allegations first emerged into public view, in a search-warrant affadvit that was unsealed in court records. (Read the rest of the story here…)

Posted in GOV. CONTRACTORS, Indictments, Convictions & Arrests. Tags: Bettencourt, Harold Bettencourt II, Josh Kemp, Kustom Products Inc., Nick Bettencourt, Susie Bettencourt, Toni Densmore. No Comments »

U.S. Army protects KBR from willfull misconduct in Iraq

Posted on: December 16th, 2011 at 2:12 pm — by Ms Sparky

Indemnification clauses are nothing new in defense contracting. Many defense contractors now have or have had in the past, contracts with the Pentagon containing indemnity provisions. These provisions potentially immunize the contractors from legal accountability for harm caused during the implementation of their contracts. Indemnification clauses are most commonly found in high risk contracts dealing with the manufacture and disposal of hazardous materials for the Pentagon. Most importantly these indemnification clauses are not necessarily “classified” by the Pentagon unlike the indemnification clause that was added to KBR’s no bid contract to Restore Iraqi Oil (RIO) at Qarmat Ali in Southern Iraq in 2003.

In a deposition filed in U.S. District Court in Portland, Oregon in the case of the deadly hexavalent chromium exposure of Oregon National Guardsman and others, it was revealed that on March 18, 2003, the eve of the Iraq invasion, a KBR attorney secured a secret indemnification clause ensuring U.S. taxpayers, and not KBR, would pay for damages in the event of any death or injury which occurred during KBR’s implementation of the Restore Iraqi Oil no-bid contract in Southern Iraq, a contract worth over $2.5B.

The typical defense contractor indemnification provisions (pdf) for defense contracts, entered as Plaintiff’s exhibit #34 in the Oregon National Guard case against KBR states:

Section (e) – The Contractor shall not be reimbursed for liabilities (and expenses incidental to such liabilities)–

Section (e)(3) – That result from willful misconduct or lack of good faith on the part of any of the Contractor’s directors, officers, managers, superintendents, or other representatives who have supervision or direction of–

(i) All or substantially all of the Contractor’s business;

(ii) All or substantially all of the Contractor’s operations at any one plant or separate locations in which this contract is being performed; or

(iii) a separate and complete major industrial operation in connection with the performance of this contract.

KBR’s recently declassified indemnification provisions (pdf) for the $2.5B no-bid Restore Iraqi Oil contract in Southern Iraq are a stark contrast to the typical indemnification afforded to other defense contractors and states: (Read the rest of the story here…)

Posted in CHEMICAL AND OTHER EXPOSURES, GOV. CONTRACTORS, KBR, KBR Contract, LAWSUITS, Lawsuits Against KBR, Politics, Qarmat Ali Lawsuits, RIO-KBR, Sodium Dichromate @ Qarmat Ali. Tags: Hexavalent Chromium, KBR, Lawsuits Against KBR, Qarmat Ali, Rep. Earl Blumenauer*, Rep. Kurt Schrader*, Senator Jeff Merkley*, Senator Ron Wyden*. No Comments »

Lawmakers Secure Provision in NDAA to Bring Transparency to War Contracting Process

Posted on: December 16th, 2011 at 7:03 am — by Ms Sparky

Blumenauer, Wyden, Schrader, Merkley Secure Provision in NDAA to Bring Transparency to War Contracting Process

Thursday, 15 December 2011 17:57

Amendment A Legislative Response To Classified Immunity Deal For Contractor KBR That Exposed Oregon National Guardsmen To Toxic Chemicals In Iraq

WASHINGTON – Today, Congress sent a version of the National Defense Authorization Act of 2011 to President Obama that included an amendment championed by Oregon Reps. Earl Blumenauer and Kurt Schrader and Sens. Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley bringing greater transparency to the war contracting process. The amendment requires the Secretary of Defense to notify the Congressional defense committees when the Pentagon enters into indemnification agreements with contractors connected to U.S. military efforts abroad and explain why such a provision is necessary.

The legislative victory culminates a process that began during the last Congress to reform how the Pentagon does business with defense contractors. The push was sparked by the stories of 34 members of the Oregon National Guard who are suing KBR after exposure to the lethal carcinogen hexavalant chromium during their 2003 tour in Iraq while protecting the Qarmat Ali Water Treatment Facility. The Qarmat Ali site, contracted to KBR for reconstruction, left Oregon troops with chronic medical problems.

The lawsuit revealed the existence of a classified indemnification clause in the KBR contract that could absolve the company from liability and shift the cost of unlimited damages, health costs and court fees onto the Department of Defense and, by extension, U.S. taxpayers. That contract was fully declassified this week as the Iraq war came to an official close. (Read the rest of the story here…)

KBR stilling fighting Oregon National Guard Troops over Qarmat Ali exposures

Posted on: December 16th, 2011 at 6:37 am — by Ms Sparky

Sodium dichromate has been linked a range of illnesses

KBR, Oregon soldiers back in federal court over medical claims Friday

By Mike Francis, The Oregonian

Lawyers for military contractor KBR Inc. will ask a federal judge in Portland Friday to rule against a group of 34 Oregon Guard soldiers who say the contractor knowingly exposed them to a carcinogenic compound in Iraq in 2003.

Attorneys of the Houston firm of Susman Godfrey will argue that the soldiers’ lawyers have failed to prove that the troops’ medical symptoms were caused by exposure to the compound.

The soldiers sued KBR after they provided security for the contractors working to repair a water treatment facility at Qarmat Ali in southern Iraq.

In Friday’s hearing, KBR’s lawyers will argue before Judge Paul Papak that the plaintiffs have failed to prove that their medical symptoms, which range from skin irritation to severe gastrointestinal and respiratory distress, were caused by exposure to sodium dichromate in 2003. They will also ask the judge to strike the testimony offered by a Texas doctor and professor who filed a “tardy” report on the soldiers’ symptoms. (Read the rest of the story here…)

Posted in CHEMICAL AND OTHER EXPOSURES, GOV. CONTRACTORS, LAWSUITS, Lawsuits Against KBR, Qarmat Ali Lawsuits, Reports & Investigations, RIO-KBR, Sodium Dichromate @ Qarmat Ali. Tags: Hexavalent Chromium, Judge Paul Papak, KBR, Lawsuits Against KBR, Oregon National Guard, Qartmat Ali, Sodium Dichromate. No Comments »

Blackwater gets an even bigger makeover

Posted on: December 14th, 2011 at 6:25 am — by Ms Sparky

Suzanne Kelly – (CNN) – December 11, 2011 – The company once known as the world’s most notorious private security contractor, Blackwater, is changing its name and its look once again in a bid to prove that it has outgrown its toxic reputation.

Renaming the company “ACADEMI” tops a number of changes that have been made by a private equity consortium that purchased the company from former owner Erik Prince last year.

“The message here is not that we’re changing the name,” said Ted Wright, who came on as the new company CEO in June. “The message is that we’re changing the company, and the name just reflects those changes. We have new owners, a new board of directors, a new management team, new location, new attitude on governance, new openness, new strategy – it’s a whole new company.”

Blackwater was dogged by controversy as it rose from a training facility in Moyock, North Carolina, in the late ’90s, to a private security powerhouse at the height of the war in Iraq. But as business boomed, so did the demand for growth, and rules regarding issues like compliance and governance were sometimes not followed. There were also accusations that some Blackwater guards operating in Iraq’s virtually lawless environment were heavy-handed, and then a deadly shooting in a Baghdad traffic circle in 2007 was the beginning of the end for the company.

Prince tried changing the Blackwater name to Xe, before selling it late last year to the group of investors led by Jason DeYonker, a managing partner at Forte Capital Advisors, and Dean Bosacki, managing partner of Manhattan Partners. The other investing partners remain anonymous. (Read the rest of the story here…)