» KBR Ms Sparky

Corrupt Contractor KBR Under Fire in Palm Beach County; Anyone Surprised?

July 15, 2010 — Ms Sparky

By Lisa Rab - Wed., Jul. 14 2010
Broward Palm Beach New Times

A front-page story in today’s Palm Beach Post blasts the Houston-based engineering and construction firm Kellogg, Brown & Root (KBR) for not hiring enough local workers on its $200 million solid waste project in western Palm Beach County.

One small detail is missing: KBR’s sordid track record of hurting workers in far more dangerous ways.

Last year, shortly after a KBR division called BE&K won the waste contract, the Juice warned of dark times to come. KBR, a former subsidiary of Halliburton, is one of the worst government contractors in Iraq and Afghanistan. It’s been accused of endangering soldiers, taking bribes, bilking the U.S. Department of Defense, and turning a blind eye to the sexual harassment of its employees. Witness some of the company’s alleged sins:

– In 2006, a Defense Department auditor found KBR may have overpriced fuel imported to Iraq by $279 million.

– In 2008, a U.S. soldier in Iraq was electrocuted while showering in a building maintained by KBR. An Army investigation ruled his death a “negligent homicide” caused by KBR. According to the Associated Press, KBR had 231 electric shock incidents in the facilities it ran in Iraq.

– In 2009, the company pleaded guilty to giving millions in dollars in bribes to Nigerian officials in order to win engineering and construction contracts. KBR agreed to pay a $402 million criminal fine.

– Several former female employees have alleged they were raped or sexually harassed while working for KBR in Iraq, then faced retaliation from the company when they complained. Last year, one sexual assault victim won a $2.9 million award from her arbitration claim against the company.

Back here in Palm Beach County, unemployed welders and carpenters say KBR is shutting them out of a lucrative gig overhauling a Solid Waste Authority plant. Meanwhile, the company is angling for yet another $700 million waste contract in the county. Sounds promising, doesn’t it? (click HERE for original article)

Posted in Electrocutions/Shocks, Indictments, Convictions & Arrests, KBR, LOGCAP III - KBR, Lawsuits Against KBR, Reports & Investigations, Ryan Maseth-US Army. Tags: Employee Issues-KBR, FCPA, Harassment, KBR Contract, Sexual Harassment, SSG Ryan Maseth. 4 Comments »

The art of duplicity and other news

June 27, 2010 — Forseti

It has been awhile since I have done a wrap-up of happenings in the cesspool we know as government contracting. Here is a list of recent events that have made the news. Blackwater/Xe has won yet another ‘get out of jail free card,’ right on the heels of securing a contract worth at least a $100 million. Our Executive branch of government is demanding a ’Do Not Pay List,’ to stop contract awards to the unsavory sorts who have their hands in the pockets of the American Taxpayer. Meanwhile the DoJ is spinning their wheels going after a scoundrel company who is based in a country that does not have an extradition treaty with the US. Is this just an example of political grandstanding to make the taxpayer think fraud, waste and abuse of our tax dollars isn’t condoned or tolerated? What about all the bad guys on this side of the pond who have overcharged, lied, cheated and stolen on multibillion dollar contracts? When are you going to start cleaning up your own backyard? Yes DoJ and Capitol Hill, I am talking to YOU! Stop nickel and diming us with indicting the little guys, start cleaning house with the robber barons who are really bilking the American Taxpayer. How about a road trip starting at 4100 Clinton Drive, Houston Texas, heading north to 13500 Heritage Parkway, Ft. Worth Texas ending in Moyock, North Carolina. Feel free to pick up any other trash you find along our US biways and highways during your trip and don’t forget to dispose of them properly!

There were several words that came to mind when thinking of a title for this post, duplicity is the only one suitable for print.
~Forseti

Obama won’t charge Blackwater with violation of Sudan sanctions
WASHINGTON — The security contractor Blackwater Worldwide tried for two years to secure lucrative defense business in Southern Sudan while the country was under U.S. economic sanctions, according to current and former U.S. officials and hundreds of pages of documents.

The effort to drum up new business in East Africa by Blackwater owner Erik Prince, a former Navy SEAL who had close ties with top officials in the George W. Bush White House and the CIA, became a major element in a continuing four-year federal investigation into allegations of sanctions violations, illegal exports and bribery.

The Obama administration, however, has decided for now not to bring criminal charges against Blackwater, according to a U.S. official close to the case. (Click HERE for Article)

Corruption leads to new rules for Afghan contracts
KABUL — During her years as chief contracting officer for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Gloria Martinez steered $155 million in contracts to the construction company her sister worked for. The company collected millions even when it failed to do the work.

Martinez, her sister Dinorah Cobos and Cobos’ boss, Raymond Azar, president of the Lebanon-based construction firm Sima Salazar, carried out one of the largest contracting schemes ever perpetrated against the corps. Their capture, after a sting in Kabul in which the corps took part, illustrated the potential for fraud in handling the billions of dollars in aid to Iraq and Afghanistan. (Click HERE for article)

(Read the rest of the story here…)

Battle Royale Brewing Between Government Contractors, Auditors

May 11, 2010 — Forseti

By Sandra I. Erwin – June 2010

The U.S. government is launching new crackdowns on federal contractors at a time when the Defense Department and other agencies depend more than ever on private-sector help.

The most recent regulatory clampdowns target contractor expenses that increasingly are being challenged by federal auditors. More assertively than in years past, the government is questioning both overhead and direct costs that companies charge under Pentagon contracts, experts said.

Disputes mostly unfold and get resolved behind the scenes, except for the sporadic headline-making feuds between Army auditors and warzone contractors. Just last month, the Justice Department filed a “false claims” suit against the military’s largest battlefield contractor, Kellogg, Brown & Root, for passing unauthorized costs for private security guards in Iraq. The company said it intends to fight the allegations.

Tugs of war over expenses have intensified in recent years, said attorneys who represent federal contractors. And clashes are expected to continue as the military increases its reliance on contractors.

“Our way of waging war brings a contractor for every soldier,” said Ashton Carter, undersecretary of defense for acquisition, technology and logistics. In Vietnam, there was one contractor for every five soldiers. In Iraq, the ratio increased to one contractor for every 1.2 troops. In Afghanistan, there are more contractors — currently 107,000 — than troops, or the equivalent of one per 0.7 soldiers, Carter said in a speech last month at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

The independent federal Commission on Wartime Contracting in Iraq and Afghanistan estimated that contracts for logistical support, translation, maintenance, security and other services have exceeded $80 billion over the past five years. Services contracts account for nearly two-thirds, and are mostly managed by the Army.

Posted in GOV. CONTRACTORS, Indictments, Convictions & Arrests, KBR, Reports & Investigations. Tags: Anne B. Perry, Ashton Carter, Commission on Wartime Contracting, DFAR, DoDIG, False Claims Act, FAR, John W. Chierichella, Patrick J. Fitzgerald, Rep. Jim Cooper, Robert Hale, Shay Assad. 4 Comments »

Wheels of justice turning slowly in deadly KBR convoy case

March 25, 2010 — Forseti

Oops he lost his cap and lanyard

Judge permits convoy ambush trial, but delays it

By TOM FOWLER HOUSTON CHRONICLE – March 25, 2010
A federal judge ruled today that most of the lawsuits claiming Houston-based KBR should have stopped a deadly 2004 truck convoy in Iraq can move toward trial, but a May 24 trial date is off to allow KBR time to file an appeal.

The case centers on April 2004 attacks on a convoy of supply trucks KBR ran in Iraq, during which six civilian truck drivers were killed and 14 wounded.

The drivers caught in the ambush were delivering fuel under KBR’s multibillion-dollar contract to transport supplies, build bases, serve meals and provide other support services for American troops in the Middle East.

Plaintiffs in the Houston lawsuits — two injured workers and the family of one who was killed in the attack — allege that the company knew of the likelihood of the attacks in advance and had the authority to cancel the convoys.

U.S. District Judge Gray Miller previously dismissed the collection of lawsuits, saying the U.S. Army had control over KBR and thus KBR wasn’t responsible.

(Read the rest of the story here…)

Posted in Donald Tolfree-KBR, Fisher vs KBR, Good Friday Massacre, KBR, LOGCAP III - KBR, Lawsuits Against KBR. Tags: Good Friday Massacre, Judge Gray Miller, Kevin Smith-Idol, Kristen Martin, Toby Cole, Tommy Fibich. 1 Comment »

David Isenberg – KBR: Failing Upwards

March 5, 2010 — Ms Sparky

David Isenberg – Huffington Post
Author, Shadow Force: Private Security Contractors in Iraq (Praeger Security International)
Posted: March 5, 2010

I wonder who comes up with this KBR stuff?

Up is down, night is day, and now, in the best tradition of George Orwell’s 1984 newspeak KBR — the company that was the subject of a recent Department of Defense Inspect General report that found that the Army broke federal procurement rules in 2004, when two commanding generals improperly directed a contracting officer to pay millions of dollars in fees to KBR Inc., when funds should have been withheld, per the language in the contract with KBR – has been awarded its first task order under the newest version of LOGCAP.

For those who don’t know, LOGCAP is the mother of all logistics support contracts. Without it the U.S. Army simply can’t function.

The award also comes just a week after the Army announced that KBR would not be awarded $25 million in bonuses under the LOGCAP III Iraq support contract because KBR “failed to meet a level deserving of an award fee payment for work it did during the first four months of 2008.” Although the Army did not specifically cite it when announcing the withholding of the payment KBR’s “failed” work occurred during the time a Green Beret was electrocuted in a barracks shower in Iraq KBR was responsible for maintaining. (Read the rest of the story here…)