Press Release of Senator McCaskill
Freshman Senators Call for Commission to Investigate Wartime Contracting
Greater Transparency, Accountability Demanded
Wednesday, July 18, 2007
Washington, D.C. – Senate Democratic freshmen today introduced a bill to establish an independent, bipartisan Commission on Wartime Contracting to investigate U.S. wartime contracting in Iraq and Afghanistan. The Commission would significantly increase transparency and accountability and generate important solutions for systematic contracting problems, potentially saving taxpayers billions of dollars.
The Commission will study and investigate the impact of the government’s growing reliance on civilian contractors to perform wartime functions. It will assess the extent of waste, fraud, abuse, and mismanagement of wartime contracts, and the extent to which those responsible have been held accountable.
The Commission will work in consultation with a newly-expanded Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction (SIGIR) that will be authorized to audit defense wartime contracts for logistics support, as well as other federal agency contracts for security and intelligence functions in Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom. This collaborative effort will result in specific findings and recommendations to improve inter-agency wartime contracting.
“Hundreds of billions of dollars have been allocated for reconstruction and stabilization efforts in Iraq alone, creating a strong potential for waste, fraud and abuse. The Commission will be retroactive in terms of accountability and proactive in terms of providing recommendations on wartime contracting. It will also address the widespread use of government contractors instead of American combat troops,” said Senator Webb.
“We are outsourcing this war in ways we’ve never seen,” continued Webb. “Defrauding the government of millions of taxpayer dollars should not be considered ‘the cost of doing business.’ It’s time for Congress to stand up on behalf of the American people and say: ‘We want our money back.’”
“During World War II, President Franklin Roosevelt said, ‘I don't want to see a single war millionaire created in the United States as a result of this world disaster’. And so Missouri’s own Senator Harry Truman created a committee that investigated and uncovered millions of dollars in wasteful, wartime spending,” Senator McCaskill said.
more:
http://mccaskill.senate.gov/record.cfm?id=279465
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