Posted on 09/23/2007 1:46:56 PM PDT by AuntB
Members of the House Armed Services Committee said Thursday they were saddened and appalled at the number of military officers and civilian officials implicated in as much as $6 billion in contract fraud in Iraq and by the mismanagement that left 190,000 weapons intended for Iraqi security forces unaccounted for.
Armed Services Chairman Ike Skelton, D-Mo., opened a hearing on incidents of bribery and fraud that occurred in a major contracting office in Kuwait by saying they "were so severe that I fear they represent a culture of corruption," a term repeated by others.
But a panel of senior defense acquisition and investigative officials attributed the rampant errors and abuse in contracting -- which have resulted in 10 convictions, 78 criminal indictments and audits into $88 billion in questionable contracts -- on lack of controls, poor leadership and an undermanned and untrained work force operating in a combat zone.
While it is important to have audits and investigations to find "the few bad actors," it is more important "that we put the proper controls in place," Thomas Gimble, the principal deputy Defense Department inspector general, told the committee. "There is no short-term solution. This is going to take a lot of work."
"We did not properly train our officers and enlisted personnel to operate in the environment they are in," said Shay Assad, director of defense procurement and acquisition policy and strategic sourcing. There also were no joint doctrines and policies to guide the people sent to handle the rapidly growing contracts for supplies and services, he said.
"It will come down to the fact that we didn't have the right leadership," said Peter Velz, the Defense secretary's foreign affairs specialist for Iraq.
And Lt. Gen. Ross Thompson, military deputy to the Army acquisition and logistics executive, said the acquisition work force was too small and "never caught up" with the crush of service contracts, that now cost more a year than the procurement of major weapon systems.
Efforts are under way to correct all those problems, the officials said.
But those explanations failed to satisfy Armed Services ranking member Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., and Rep. John Kline, R-Minn., both combat veterans.
"Dishonesty is not a reflection of manning levels," Hunter said.
Hunter said the committee had inserted language in the fiscal 2006 defense authorization requiring the Army to create three "contingency contract brigades" able to deploy rapidly to handle situations like the build up in Iraq.
Told that those brigades were just being formed two years later, Hunter said, "That's half the time it took us to win World War II."
"You may be moving in the right direction, but you're moving slowly," he said.
Kline observed that this was not the first time the U.S. military has been to war. "When are we going to have these controls in place?"
The Defense officials sought to deflect some of the committee's ire, noting that the Government Accountability Office, which reported last month it could not account for 30 percent of weapons the United States distributed to Iraqi forces, did not say weapons were actually missing.
The weapons went into Iraq by different means, some went directly to Iraqi troops and others to the warehouses, Velz said. "There just weren't enough people to document them" and no one can be sure if the weapons were ever transferred, he said.
Yes, and some republicans and the White House just keep chumming .
See, I can also use a thesaurus. Can I now be a Congressman?(BR>
I didn’t post the article. Government = waste
The only way to eliminate waste is to not have government. Our civil war had profiteers sending invoices to the government for supplies they never delivered. Some things never change.
I did say it looks like they are finding the crooks and they are paying the consequences.
Welcome to the world of graft. Hunter is right.
How about the death penalty for anyone who fudges on their tax return?
Death penalty for any government employee or contractor caught embezzling, misusing tax dollars?
Death penalty for anyone who knowingly commits fraud of any sort?
$6 Billion is a huge number -but what percentage is it of total spending? Even local govt spending has 2-5% fraud or more built into it.
Yes, he is. AGAIN!
I’m amazed how some of you take this so lightly. If it were a democrat administration everyone would be calling for their heads.
Calling for their heads and having something actually being done to stop fraud and waste are two different things entirely.
Democrat party kool-aid tastes pretty good once you get started drinking it.
Who???
Those of you who do anything but condemn these thieves should be ashamed of yourself. But you won’t be, ‘cause you’re too damn focused on slamming liberals rather then strengthening the country.
Most of you are as pathetic as the pinkos.
This crap is ridiculous.
Is there a caboose to this train of silly questions and comments you keep throwing in here?
Love your tagline!
Posting an article and getting outraged doesn’t change the essential fact that governments waste money. The larger they are, the more they waste.
If you want to put a stop to waste and fraud, apply the death penalty for those charged with mis-spending our tax dollars.
To be fair, if someone cheats their fellow citizen by lying on their tax returns, give them the death penalty also.
OH PLEASE! Stop the feigned shock... These RATS piss away much more than that on useless pork.
There is no “useless” pork. The pork results in more votes, job security, name recognition and payments to the candidates financiers.
I agree the mock outrage is quite hypocritical though.
The man investigating the missing weapons.
You’re familiar with the details of this investigation? Please share.
I’m more interested in the 190,000 missing weapons.
Disgusting.
Chalk this up as yet another reason why Bush has boggled Iraq.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.