Thursday, August 28, 2008

A Bridge for Sale: Contracting Problems Continue

I came in this morning to find my inbox (well, it was actually my Google RSS Reader, but saying inbox sounds better) deluged with more stories about contractor malfesence. A quick rundown for our BudgetBlog readers:

The Wall Street Journal reports that MVM Inc., one of the largests security contractors used by the U.S. intelligence community, has lost a huge CIA contract - worth up to $1 billion over five years. Apparently they were not providing enough armed security guards, which is strange because that was, you know, what they were contracted to do.

Robert O'Harrow Jr. writing at Government Inc. shares some fascinating facts about the use of contractors in the U.S. intelligence community, including the fact we are paying over $3 billion more each year on average for private contractors to carry out intelligence work than if we just hired more government workers. Shocker! (O'Harrow also highlighted a new Government Accountability Office report on August 15 that detailed the 400 percent (yes, I said 400 percent) markup on a contract to provide the next generation of radios for the Defense Department.)

And the darling of the contracting community KBR Inc., was back in the news today in the Washington Post, again not for a good reason. A Washington law firm has filled suit in a federal court in California alleging that KBR and one of its Jordanian subcontractors were trafficing Nepali workers. From the Post article:

Agnieszka Fryszman, a partner at Cohen, Milstein, Hausfeld & Toll, said 13 Nepali men, between the ages of 18 and 27, were recruited in Nepal to work as kitchen staff in hotels and restaurants in Amman, Jordan. But once the men arrived in Jordan, their passports were seized and they were told they were being sent to a military facility in Iraq, Fryszman said.

As the men were driven in cars to Iraq, they were stopped by insurgents. Twelve were kidnapped and later executed, Fryszman said. The thirteenth man survived and worked in a warehouse in Iraq for 15 months before returning to Nepal.

My favorite part of that article is right at the end when a KBR spokeswoman says, "The company in no way condones or tolerates unethical or illegal behavior." Sure. And I've got a bridge to sell you.

Update:
The folks over at TPMMuckraker dove into the specifics of the lawsuit brought against KBR today and have posted more details.