U.S. paid two British security firms $548 mil. over past 3 yrs to protect Army Corp of Engineers

[ProSense]

U.S. Pays Millions In Cost Overruns For Security in Iraq

By Steve Fainaru
Washington Post Foreign Service
Sunday, August 12, 2007; A06

BAGHDAD -- The U.S. military has paid $548 million over the past three years to two British security firms that protect the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers on reconstruction projects, more than $200 million over the original budget, according to previously undisclosed data that show how the cost of private security in Iraq has mushroomed.

The two companies, Aegis Defence Services and Erinys Iraq, signed their original Defense Department contracts in May 2004. By July of this year, the contracts supported a private force that had grown to about 2,000 employees serving the Corps of Engineers. The force is about the size of three military battalions.

U.S. officials and company representatives attributed the overruns to the cost of protecting a largely civilian workforce amid an escalating insurgency, as Corps of Engineers commanders demanded more manpower and increasingly expensive armor to guard their field staff.

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The private security industry has surged in Iraq because of troop shortages and growing violence. After the March 2003 invasion, hundreds of foreign and Iraqi companies, many of them new, signed contracts with the U.S. and British militaries, the State Department, the Iraqi government, media and humanitarian organizations and other private companies.

The size of this force and its cost have never been documented. Private security contractors have been used in previous wars, but not on this scale, according to military experts. Several lawmakers have recently sought to regulate the private security industry and account for billions of dollars spent on outsourcing military and intelligence tasks that once were handled exclusively by the government.

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[babylonsister]

1. Your tax dollars at work, but we can't insure kids. nt

[ProSense]

2. How are the reconstruction efforts going? n/t

[jimshoes]

3. Kind of like the protection racket

only here they really need it. Can it possibly be worth the added cost of doing business for the private sector to have to pay a frickin' private army to stay alive while doing your work?

[unhappycamper]

4. Zonkers!

~snip~

Months ago, the military recognized that the two overlapping contracts were costing millions of dollars in duplicate spending and sought to consolidate them. The result is still the single largest security contract in Iraq. The new contract will save $7 million a month, according to the Corps of Engineers, but will still be worth up to $475 million to the winning bidder.