‘Uncategorized’ Archives
Defense Contractors and Oversight
Meet in a Perfect Storm
The spending spree and ongoing contracting nightmares in Iraq, aka, Halliburton, et al, are coming home to roost. After fending off critics for several years, the Pentagon and its stable of contractors are tacitly admitting that just maybe the public is getting a bit upset over billions of dollars going out the door with only a slim excuse for [...]
The Poster Child for Cost Overruns
They said that treating the C-130 cargo plane as an off-the-shelf item, we're talking on the level of laundry detergent and light bulbs, would keep costs down because the program wouldn't need pesky oversight of Pentagon auditors and contract managers. The cost nearly doubled in ten years. Darlene Druyun was in on the plan. Sen. John McCain, [...]
Quality and Cost Control Professionals Say Oversight is Crumbling on Pentagon Procurement
By David Phinney April 16, 2005 -- A government quality assurance officer in Texas says he repeatedly found defects in aircraft parts being purchased by the Air Force, but his managers refused to address the problem. Instead, they reassigned him to a new job. In Orlando, Fla., a Defense Department engineer discovered a company double-billed [...]
A Fog of Allegations about Bribes and Kickbacks at Halliburton’s KBR
Here's a document that sheds some light on ongoing investigations of Halliburton's business in Iraq: an internal company memo dated May 13, 2004, from Randy Harl, KBR chairman, advises company employees that "one or two of our former employees may have received ‘kick backs' from a selected contractor," and that government investigators had been [...]
And, Now the Indictments — Multiple Lawsuits Target KBR
Here is a taste of the lawsuits taking on Halliburton's subsidiary KBR and its multibillion business in Iraq for providing logistical support to the U.S. Army. Only recently has it been made public that the complaint is related to indictments of a former KBR manager and subcontractor LaNouvelle for an alleged million-dollar kickback. by David [...]
Iraq Contractor Claims Immunity From Fraud Laws
The off-shore shell games of Custer Battles reflect an even more perplexing puzzle about the status of the Coalition Provisional Authority. Does U.S. law have jurisdiction over the contracts written by the CPA? And if it does, how in the heck do you collect on funds that were made up of seized Iraqi assets? Maybe the shell games began with the [...]
