TOPICS
TOPICS
Army's largest contractor in Iraq under renewed attack
Kellogg Brown & Root, the Army's largest contractor in Iraq and frequent target of critics for its alleged wasteful management of a $31.7 billion logistics contract, came under renewed fire Monday from a special bipartisan oversight panel and the Pentagon's top auditor of defense contracts.
In testimony before the Commission on Wartime Contracting, Defense Contract Audit Agency director April Stephenson said KBR, working under a wartime logistics services contract called LOGCAP III, continually failed to seek out and track cost-efficient subcontractors, costing taxpayers millions of dollars. It also became the focus of the "vast majority" of 32 cases that have been referred to prosecutors for possible fraud charges, she said.
Commissioner Linda Gustitus asked a group of military contracting officials why the Army continued to contract with KBR despite the firm's failure to overhaul monitoring of subcontractors that administer the vast majority of its war-zone services.
"The history of KBR is delay, delay, delay in fixing up these systems," Gustitus said. "How could you possibly assume that they were going to do what they said that they would do on these business systems, and go ahead and award them a contract?"
The critique came in the wake of a letter sent Friday to Defense Secretary Robert Gates by Sens. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., and Susan Collins, R-Maine, who slammed "the Army's continued reliance on KBR's monopoly contract." The lawmakers said the Defense Department has failed to transition expeditiously to LOGCAP IV, a new incarnation of the wartime logistics contract that splits the workload between KBR and two other companies charged with providing dining, laundry, housing, and other services for military personnel on the battlefield. McCaskill and Collins, the chairman and acting ranking member of a new Senate Subcommittee on Contracting Oversight, charged that the Pentagon has failed to recover at least $100 million in overpayments to tainted KBR subcontractors.
During Monday's commission hearing, the panel's eight members -- including its newest member, former Rep. Christopher Shays, R-Conn., -- expressed concern about the dearth of contract oversight officials in Iraq and Afghanistan, where hundreds of oversight positions remain vacant.
COMMENTS
- KBR was,is the best and worst contractor to work for the Army in Iraq or Afganistan . They went places no one else would and did things no other contractor would do. They served the best chow that I have ever eaten anywhere around the Army. They may be sorry but they took good care of the Troops. michael Posted October 8, 2009 5:23 AM
- Okay I have heard all the comments but being a retiree and a contractor for a year. I know things need to be fixed with contractors but the Army needs to get fixed too so don't point fingers at either too harshly. There was a time when the world was with those who either supported Communism or Democracy or just chose sides but that world is not around anymore so instead of just having to worry about Russians or Chinese we have to worry about every potential country that could be the next rogue state which means troops are everywhere. So despite wanting to just have military only in Iraq and Afghanistan the problems in this world right now say that is impossible. We still have to watch Korea, Iraq, Syria, The mess in Israel, the Philippines the list goes on so for the notion you don't need contractors is absurd. All the combat troops can't be in theater nor can all the support troops as I said they are needed everywhere and contractors just fill a void. Live with it this is not a trend but a reality unless you have some dream that the current state of the world is going to change overnight Mannix Brooks Posted July 17, 2009 7:57 PM
- I have worked 15 years overseas military contracting for several different companies. I will move from KBR now to one of the incoming companies in Afghanistan or go elsewhere. The focus on KBR for the last several years has been ridiculous, doesn't anyone really think all of these companies aren't very well connected? Can you really believe anything that comes out of the pie-hole of a politically appointed agency head? Much of what is being called waste and abuse is what the military wants(needs) to get young generation soldiers and old reservists to live in a combat zone. War is only hell for the young grunts that live and operate from the small bases which are not contractor supported. All the rest have to be maintained in luxury and it is not the contractors that set that up. 15yrcontractor Posted July 11, 2009 11:32 PM
