Senators Accuse Pentagon of Delay in Recovering Millions (from KBR)

Source: NY Times

The Pentagon has done little to collect at least $100 million in overcharges paid in deals arranged by corrupt former officials of Kellogg Brown & Root, the defense contractor, even though the officials admitted much of the wrongdoing years ago, two senators have complained in a letter to Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates.

The letter also said that the Army had almost completely failed to move away from the monopolistic nature of the logistics contract that has paid the contractor, now called KBR, $31.3 billion for logistics operations in Iraq, Kuwait and Afghanistan.

The New York Times obtained a copy of the letter, dated Friday, by the senators, Claire McCaskill, Democrat of Missouri, and Susan M. Collins, Republican of Maine. Senator McCaskill is chairman of a contracting oversight subcommittee of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, and Senator Collins is the subcommittee’s ranking Republican.

Their letter is likely to revive allegations that the Pentagon has become so close to KBR, and relies so heavily on it, that there is little inclination or incentive to discipline the company, in response to either Congress or critics outside the government.


Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/04/world/americas/04contract.html?hp

thats your tax dollars folks! flushed down the john.

That's one of the greatest legacies of Dick Cheney. As Secretary of Defense he encouraged privatization of military services. As CEO of Halliburton he reaped the rewards. As Vice President he ramped up the privatization as far as he could. And got his pals no-bid contracts to "keep America safe".

And much less than keeping us safe, they were a national embarrassment. The privatized military services were so much worse than the quality provided when they were done in-house.

Let us hope we can clear the Pentagon of enough of the Cheney "leave-behinds" to back out of those destructive, inefficient, wasteful no-bid contracts for the provision of too often incompetent or at least sub-par services.

When we performed the support services in house, there were jobs in the military for people who wanted to serve our country but weren't cut out for combat. And people could learn a variety of skills and trades through military service that could be applied to finding a job after serving. People could learn to cook for large groups, fix electrical systems, etc.

De-privatizing military support services would save us a lot of money and make us more efficient in many other ways.

Rampant war profiteering during the Bush years did a lot of damage to our military readiness all around.

We need better negotiators. Maybe Congress should be talking to some actual loan sharks amd enforcers for constructive ideas on how to manage the public purse.

How many of our soldiers need to be electrocuted before we suspend their contracts (or stop awarding them new ones)?

are these senators going to do anything about it other than blather?