Return to Article: Senate Dems seek probe of wartime contracting
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34121
I applaud Sens. Jim Webb and Claire McCaskill for this initiative. Accountability is not a partisan issue!
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33964
MADMAX - did I understand you correctly? Did you say that DoD contracts are "by and large clean"?
If so, oh dear. Maybe you should Google some of the reports from GAO, among others, detailing the billions and billions in fraud and abuse already found in DoD contracts in Iraq. No surprise that Halibacon and one of it's subsidiaries, KBR, have been found guilty more than once, and have had to pay fines for their perfidy.
They've never ever had to pay a price for doing business - illegally - with Syria and Iran though.
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33895
I am confused by the article, is the commission going to look at DOD contracting or Iraq reconstruction contracting? I would agree that DOD contracting is by a large clean, eventhough there can be bad apples anywhere. Iraq Reconstruction contracting is a mess, particularly contracting that was dealt with by the Provisional Authority or later by the Iraqi Government. In 2004/2005 I never saw adequate supervison by the Corps of Engineers.
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33862
The problem is not with the acquisition personnel, but with the entire concept of placing contractors into a combat theater to perform activities that are "inherently governmental." Such inherently governmental functions as force protection in a war zone, or logistics operations within a combat theater are fraught with opportunity for contractors to escape accountability through the use of "exigent circumstances" rationalizations. Contractors can bring great value to the American taxpayer, but only doing things that are commercial in nature, not those things that were designed to be done, and should only be done by Government personnel, who have sworn an oath and are not serving two masters.
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33858
It's great that they want to do something about the contracting problems, but they need to also force DoD to do some house cleaning. They need to start putting these people in jail for such actions, and include the ones who signed off on these contracts. Another part of this problem is the fact of the need for the contractors and soldiers for that matter, to be in this situation in the first place.
And it would be nice if this sentiment also worked on the rest of the government because there is a lot of waste going on in the rest of the government. I would like to see departments rewarded for saving taxpayers' money instead of having the annual spend-fest to get rid of money that has not been spent. That is one big problem that contributes to the waste. No agency should have to spend money, they should be able to roll it over or give it back to the appropriations committee.
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33854
Rick, you're assigning accountability in these zillion dollar contracts so you can use the taxpayer dollars you've already collected more efficiently. You don't need to raise taxes if you stop pissing away your dollars to CACI and Halliburton.
And fvanguard, to think like you do, there's no other logical explanation than your hand must be in the cookie jar.
It's kind of like paying $10,000/MONTH for a heating bill but you don't even have a roof on your house. You don't even see that as waste. You just crank up the heat even more. It's not your money...
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33850
Why has it taken this long to try to control the excessive wasteful spending that has occurred in this war. After all, Harry Truman stated in the beginning of WW II "there will be no millionaires made from this war", yet not one of the members of either House of Congress had the guts to stand up and make a similar committment, not even so much as to attempt to reinstate the Presidential Order that was established for War II. It seems the statement "Mission Accomplished", appears to have meant that the "Barndoor to create Billionaires were wide open."
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33848
Please spare the Taxpayer, whose money it is. No matter what the true conclusion is, the truth (as a matter of fact) will not come forward, will not be written for the public, and no one including the corporations will be held responsible. The money that was fraudulently wasted will never be recouped, the dealmakers will not be held accountable, and the American people will just accept it as is. Increased taxes to the Taxpayer will/may take care of the issue.
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33840
I concur with Rick. The real issue is that the environment was never secure enough for the business practices we use stateside to succeed in Iraq/Afghanistan. I have done contracting in the US for years as well as in support of OIF/OEF. Contract management is characterized by little if any oversight, a leadership that cares little for the value we get out of our dollar and an overall expectation that contractors can be as responsive as a military unit. In pursuit of the latter a lot of good contract practices are ignored. I personaly re-wrote a contract that had been awarded without competition for two years in a row for 1 million each year. When the re-written contract went out for bid we awarded it at 35k. To gain the savings the requesting unit had to be a little more actively involved in the management of the activity, something a lot of them don't like to do. It's a lot easier to blame failure on poor contract performance.
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33828
Sincere and honest action on this amendment won't go down well on or near 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, DC. There is a big elephant in the room and nearly all Americans are walking around it. 1. Our Armed Forces are not large enough for the missions they have. 2. To compensate we augment with this quasi-military force of contractors. 3. No politician will say we need to raise taxes to fund our military and/or quasi-military. 4. To compensate we borrow billions of dollars from China and others. How smart is this tactic by our politicians? Is this a "pay me now or pay me later" situation for the American people? Someone must pay! Who will pay and when? How will they pay?
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33818
On one hand this is similar to closing the barn door after the horse has escaped. On the other hand, late is better than never because we'll still be there in 50 years.
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33817
This is another example of Democrats trying to find something they can put their names on to show that they've actually done something while they've been in power. Big deal, the Senator was an auditor. I would bet that neither her nor Senator Webb know very much about what it takes to put in place and administer a federal contract under the conditions found in Irag, and Katrina for that matter. These politicians, who have done basically nothing to speak of, since the last election, are determined to find federal contracting officers doing something wrong. How about catching CO's doing something right? I have been an acquisition PROFESSIONAL, if they know what that means, for over twenty years, and I have never seen the career-service so scapegoated as it is now. Webb especially, should be ashamed of himself. Federal employees in Webb's district take notice! This is another attempt by Democrats to "investigate", rather than come up with substantive policy that will help all Americans.
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33815
I don't follow the argument that more rules will improve the situation. In my view, the issue is that the government is awarding contracts with little oversight. Using contractors is efficient. Does Congress really want soldiers used for rebuilding Iraqi powerplants? The issue is: how do you legislate effective oversight? The most effective tool Congress has is to embarrass the executive agencies about their lack of oversight of contractors. For example: how often did a DSS employee responsible for overseeing a local Blackwater PSD go out with them to check on their procedures? If the answer is generally never, who is managing the contract and what are their weak excuses for not performing some quality assurance on the teams? I know that my boss is highly motivated to avoid those sorts of probing questions, and tries to prevent problems like that. Laws regulating contractor behavior only address the most egregious issues.
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33810
US-warships throughout the world have one target only showing how the capitalist systems works: a) bring home the low ranks of soldiers in tin coffins and b) bring home the money for the suppliers of goods, services a.s.om for contracting. Contracting is the key of all dealing: some wins, the common people loose, called exploitation.
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