Canceled Iraq contracts cost U.S. $600 million

[sabra]

Source: USA Today

WASHINGTON — The Pentagon spent about $600 million on more than 1,200 Iraq reconstruction contracts that were eventually canceled, nearly half of them for mismanagement or shoddy construction, government investigators say.

The Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction (SIGIR) found that 42% of canceled contracts were terminated because the contractor either failed to deliver or performed poorly.

The rest were canceled for the "convenience of the government," usually for security problems, lack of funding or changing requirements, an inspector general report says.

The report, which analyzed contracts since 2003, detailed seven projects in which the U.S. paid total of $172.2 million for work that was substandard, unfinished or never built.

Many of the factors causing contracts to be canceled are beyond the control of the companies or the United States, said DeDe Cordell, a spokeswoman for the Army Corps of Engineers in Baghdad. "The very small number of issues found by the SIGIR in this report is a testament to the hard work and dedication of the people managing these complicated contracts," Cordell said in an e-mail.

Read more: http://www.usatoday.com/news/military/2008-11-17-iraqcontracts_N.htm?loc=interstitialskip

[SpiralHawk]

1. Republicons - sheesh. Totally pathetic.

This is what you get with a silver-spoon, Connecticut Yankee preppy, pretend-Texan, AWOL coke-sniffing FAIL-freak (Bush) at the top of the republicon shit heap, running a lie-based, profit-making-for-cronies 'war' with the 'help' of a republicon VP-Clown with Five Freaking Military Deferments (Cheney).

The republicons have ruined America and Iraq, and everything they have touched with their greasy, greedy, corrupt hands.

[smiley_glad_hands]

2. Wish I had a canceled contract. eom

[Daphne08]

3. K & R

[qwlauren35]

4. I need more info. Total # of contracts, vs. 1200 canceled ones.

If there were 12,000,000 contracts, then I can live with this number. If the total expenditures on contracts were on the order of $600 billion, then I can live with 1%.

Remind me again what we were spending per month on this GDMF war? AT LEAST $70 million? For six years?

Need more numbers.