Monday
Nov022009
Independent Panel Probes Handling Of Gov’t Contracts
Monday, November 2, 2009 at 3:40PM
Travis Martinez - University of New Mexico/Talk Radio News Service
The independent, bipartisan Commission on Wartime Contracts in Afghanistan and Iraq acknowledged Monday that there has been difficulty judging how many contractors are in the two nations, a scenario Co-Chair Michael J. Thibault warned could expose the U.S. to fraud.
“Eight years after the overthrow of the Taliban regime in Afghanistan and more than six years since the overthrow of the Baathist regime in Iraq, we still don't know how many contract employees are in the region,” said Thibault during a hearing Monday. "The concern is not knowing exactly how many contractors there are, where they are, what they’re doing. That difficulty, in turn, permits and invites waste, fraud and abuse of taxpayers money and undermines the achievement of U.S. mission objectives."
A major concern for the panel is the lack of a single census system to account for contractors in both theaters. The effectiveness of the two accounting systems utilized, SPOT and CENTCOM, has been in question. The panel raised concerns that during a one-month span earlier this year the two systems produced a nearly 80,000 count gap.
Three witnesses that testified, Assistant Deputy Undersecretary of Defense Gary Mostek, Deputy Director of CENTCOM Redding Hobby and John Hutton with the GAO, all expressed doubts that the SPOT program is an effective method of accounting. All three shared the feeling that a manual census at this point would be the most reliable means of keeping track of how many contractors are in the two countries.
The independent, bipartisan Commission on Wartime Contracts in Afghanistan and Iraq acknowledged Monday that there has been difficulty judging how many contractors are in the two nations, a scenario Co-Chair Michael J. Thibault warned could expose the U.S. to fraud.
“Eight years after the overthrow of the Taliban regime in Afghanistan and more than six years since the overthrow of the Baathist regime in Iraq, we still don't know how many contract employees are in the region,” said Thibault during a hearing Monday. "The concern is not knowing exactly how many contractors there are, where they are, what they’re doing. That difficulty, in turn, permits and invites waste, fraud and abuse of taxpayers money and undermines the achievement of U.S. mission objectives."
A major concern for the panel is the lack of a single census system to account for contractors in both theaters. The effectiveness of the two accounting systems utilized, SPOT and CENTCOM, has been in question. The panel raised concerns that during a one-month span earlier this year the two systems produced a nearly 80,000 count gap.
Three witnesses that testified, Assistant Deputy Undersecretary of Defense Gary Mostek, Deputy Director of CENTCOM Redding Hobby and John Hutton with the GAO, all expressed doubts that the SPOT program is an effective method of accounting. All three shared the feeling that a manual census at this point would be the most reliable means of keeping track of how many contractors are in the two countries.
Increase In Defense Contractors Creating Concern Over Waste And Fraud
The Commission on War Time Contracts expressed concern on Monday over the military's use of contract employees Afghanistan and Iraq.
The independent and bipartisan commission held a series of hearings today investigating how the neglect of defense contracts has led to fraud, waste and abuse by government contracted companies.
“We need to be clear about the role of contractors in supporting the Iraq drawdown, and be sure that numbers of contractor personnel are appropriately geared to the reduction of U.S. Military,” said Co-Chair of the Commission Michael Thibault.
With the deadline for a complete American troop withdrawal in Iraq scheduled for December 21, 2011, the commission is looking into ways to avoid waste while effectively managing supplies that are shipped, sold or donated to residents of the two nations.
“As units move out of bases, the absolute and comparative numbers of contractors may rise to prepare bases for handover or closure, but the general trend should be for declining numbers,” said Thibault.
Although the commission would like to see a drawdown of contractors coincide with a drawdown of troops in Iraq, Rear Admiral Tom Traaen testified that the opposite may occur instead.
“The ratio of contractors to military has been 1:1 for the past several years, but it is predicted this will increase to 1.5:1 by next August,” he said.