Disorder, Negligence and Mismanagement: Iraq Reconstruction Funds

[G_j]

Disorder, Negligence and Mismanagement: How the CPA handled Iraq Reconstruction Funds

Audits by the Coalition Provisional Authority Inspector General, the International Advisory and Monitoring Board, and Pentagon auditors have come together to affirm earlier accusations. The CPA bypassed and even failed to apply US government measures against fraud, waste and abuse in disbursing money from the Development Fund for Iraq. The Iraqi interim government, in charge of the DFI since the transfer of power, has not been any more transparent than the CPA. (Iraq Revenue Watch)

http://www.globalpolicy.org/security/issues/iraq/dfiindex.htm#revwatch

[Karenina]

1. Errraaaa....

HALLO? Anyone home??? YOUR tax dollars at "hard work???"

[seemslikeadream]

2. The Sons of RIO Conspiracy

.....

The final mystery is why Bush administration critics continue to focus on the secret RIO award and Halliburton's overcharges for fuel, meals, etc. They have yet to turn their attention to the Sons of RIO competition, where the evidence of conspiracy, corruption, and procurement fraud is black and white, not the grey area of federal law that governs sole-source awards. The question is - why?

Perhaps because Halliburton's competitors who know what happened have not complained for fear of jeopardizing their chances of winning future Pentagon work. Federal contractors adhere to an unofficial code of silence; they will not 'bite the hand that feeds them' by criticizing their government customers except anonymously or off the record.

Perhaps Bush administration critics continue to focus on the secret RIO award and overcharges for fuel, meals, etc., because federal contracting documents, regulations, and procedures are too time-consuming to explore and too difficult to understand for those not involved with them on a regular basis. Pentagon officials have made many statements to the press about the Iraq oil contracts, including the reasons for the delays in the Sons of RIO awards, that are blatantly untrue. They may have sounded reasonable, but they were inaccurate representations of federal procurement laws and regulations and the procedures that normally ensure fair play. Not only were the media and the public unable to discern the difference, but persons in oversight and review positions in the government were not able to either.

Or perhaps the reason Bush administration critics have yet to turn their attention to the Sons of RIO competition is as simple as, after all the outcry over the secret award, no one ever dreamed Pentagon officials would be arrogant enough and corrupt enough to con us again. Since the secret RIO contract was revealed in March last year, various actions and statements of Pentagon officials have been reported in the media as rather isolated events. There was apparently no attempt to connect them, which is unfortunate because they reveal a clear pattern of cause and effect, conspiracy and corruption. You can see it for yourself in the timeline from the second edition of Shock and Awe in Fort Worth.

Sheryl Tappan has written proposals that have won billions of dollars' worth of U.S. Government work. In early 2003, she was responsible for the proposal that won Bechtel the Iraq civil infrastructure reconstruction contract from USAID ($1.3 billion). In the summer of 2003, she led Bechtel's proposal team in the Sons of RIO competition until discovering it was a sham and Bechtel withdrew. Last fall, she wrote much of the proposal that won Bechtel the second Iraq civil contract from USAID ($1.8 billion). After completing that assignment, she retired as a Bechtel consultant to pursue other projects, including Shock and Awe in Fort Worth. According to Representative Waxman, "She's been very helpful in raising significant concerns about Halliburton's oil work in Iraq. We place a great deal of weight on her information due to her credentials."8

more
http://www.guerrillanews.com/war_on_terrorism/doc5215.html

I'm home, doing laundry :hi:

[seemslikeadream]

3. and by the way

The Corps also failed to mention the requirement, clearly stated in the Final Work Plan, that all subcontracts and purchases of equipment and materials had to go through Halliburton KBR's procurement and accounting systems, even those for projects managed by Iraqi Ministry of Oil personnel. So Halliburton would get a fee and profit on virtually everything done in the Iraq oil fields. The Plan said Halliburton's procurement and accounting systems had been audited and approved many times over the years in association with various federal contracts to ensure they met the government's stringent requirements.

Interestingly, those are the same systems later dubbed "antiquated" by

Pentagon Comptroller Dov Zakheim

and blamed for tens of millions of dollars of Halliburton's overcharges in Iraq.3 (Zakheim, a Bush appointee, left the Pentagon in April for a high-paying position with another large federal contractor.)

[G_j]

5. $$$$$$$$$$$$

and more $$$$$$$$$$$$

stealing the hard earned tax dollars of ordinary Americans,
how patriotic!

[seemslikeadream]

4. How Cheney Got Away With $35 Million

....

Just as disturbing is the fact that Cheney had the auditing company Arthur Anderson—which unraveled in 2002 after the company was found guilty of obstruction of justice in the Enron debacle—approve Halliburton’s accounting methods. Cheney was so grateful he agreed to appear in a promotional video for Anderson and spoke glowingly about the company for going above and beyond routine audits for Halliburton.

“One of the things I like that they do for us is that, in effect, I get good advice...from their people based upon how we’re doing business and how we’re operating, over and above the just sort of the normal, by-the-books audit arrangement,” said Cheney on the 1996 tape.


In a separate act of corporate malfeasance, a French judge is pouring over evidence to determine whether Cheney may have been responsible for at least one of four bribery payments exchanged between a Halliburton subsidiary and Nigerian officials to obtain contracts for liquefied natural gas projects. Under French law, “The head of a company can be charged with ‘misuse of corporate assets’ for bribes paid by any employee—even if the executive didn’t know about the improper payments.” The U.S. Justice Department is also investigating the issue.

The Justice Department is also investigating whether Halliburton violated sanctions that prohibit U.S. corporations and businesses from engaging in commercial, financial, or trade transactions with Iran while Cheney headed the company. For the record, Cheney personally lobbied Congress in 1996 to lift those sanctions. When Congress denied the request, Halliburton opened a Cayman Island subsidiary so it could do business in Iran by skirting U.S. law.

In July 2004, a federal grand jury issued a subpoena to Halliburton seeking information about its work in Iran. Government officials told the Washington Post such cases are referred to Justice only when there is evidence that “intentional or willful” violations have occurred.

After a $35 million windfall from his sales of Halliburton stock—right before the company’s share price crashed due to the announcement that it was being investigated by a grand jury for over-billing the federal government (which also took place under Cheney’s watch)—the Washington Post summed up Cheney’s tenure at Halliburton: “The developments at Halliburton since Cheney’s departure leave two possibilities: either the vice president did not know of the magnitude of problems at the oilfield services company he ran for five years or he sold his shares in August 2000 knowing the company was likely headed for a fall.”

more
http://zmagsite.zmag.org/Oct2004/leopold1004.html

[Karenina]

6. Now THAT

was "hard work!"

[G_j]

7. LOL

war profiteering is 'hard work'. It is reassuring to know that these folks aren't complete slackers, eh?