Tell me again why KBR still gets paid?

I really wish we could find out who--if anyone--realizes that when we unravel all of these things and figure out what was done, they're going to go to prison. Just kidding! Of course none of these people are going to go to prison. They're going to go to Disneyworld! And you, the taxpayer, are gonna pay for it.

Army auditors had determined that [Kellogg, Brown & Root--the Halliburton subsidiary] KBR lacked credible data or records for more than $1 billion in spending, so Mr. [Charles M.] Smith refused to sign off on the payments to the company. “They had a gigantic amount of costs they couldn’t justify,” he said in an interview. “Ultimately, the money that was going to KBR was money being taken away from the troops, and I wasn’t going to do that.”

But he was suddenly replaced, he said, and his successors — after taking the unusual step of hiring an outside contractor to consider KBR’s claims — approved most of the payments he had tried to block.

Army officials denied that Mr. Smith had been removed because of the dispute, but confirmed that they had reversed his decision, arguing that blocking the payments to KBR would have eroded basic services to troops. They said that KBR had warned that if it was not paid, it would reduce payments to subcontractors, which in turn would cut back on services.

“You have to understand the circumstances at the time,” said Jeffrey P. Parsons, executive director of the Army Contracting Command. “We could not let operational support suffer because of some other things.”

Mr. Smith’s account fills in important gaps about the Pentagon’s handling of the KBR contract, which has cost more than $20 billion so far and has come under fierce criticism from lawmakers.

While it was previously reported that the Army had held up large payments to the company and then switched course, Mr. Smith has provided a glimpse of what happened inside the Army during the biggest showdown between the government and KBR. He is giving his account just as the Pentagon has recently awarded KBR part of a 10-year, $150 billion contract in Iraq.

No, Mr. Parsons--I don't "gotta understand" anything. When your flimsy excuse for incompetence is to try to say that "things were really, really bad back then" you really should just come out and tell everyone the truth: "wow, we screwed the pooch and that money is gone, baby gone."

I sure wish we had known this story in 2004. It might have helped a significant number of Americans make a more informed decision as to who to vote for in the Presidential election held that year.

Anyway, the whole article is an eye-opener and I just can't understand--where's the perp walk? Why did KBR get another massive contract? If I'm outraged, and if you're outraged, when do we see some justice?

--WS

KBR and A Case of Inadequate Oversight

One more reason to convene a Truman Commission:

A House committee is investigating accidental electrocutions of U.S. troops in Iraq to determine if inadequate oversight of government contracts played a role in the deaths.

Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, asked the Pentagon on Wednesday to provide details on 12 deaths in Iraq since 2003 that are believed to have been caused by electrocution.

In particular, the committee is interested in maintenance contracts for troops’ living areas to see if contractors have been slow to make repairs when electrical problems have been reported.

Once the information is in hand, the committee will decide how to proceed, aides said. Waxman’s committee does not have direct oversight of the military, but it does have power over federal contracting, and is considering revising some rules after finding a variety of problems with other Iraq-related contracts.

The committee investigation was prompted by the Jan. 2 accidental death of 24-year-old Army Staff Sgt. Ryan Maseth, who suffered cardiac arrest after being electrocuted while taking a shower in Iraq.

Army investigators found that Maseth’s death was the result of improper grounding of electrical wiring to the pump supplying water for living quarters at the Radwaniyah Palace Complex in Baghdad, Waxman said.

“When Staff Sergeant Maseth stepped into the shower and turned on the water, an electrical short in the pump sent an electrical current through the water pipes to the metal shower hose, and then through Staff Sergeant Maseth’s arm to his heart,” Waxman said.

That is just unacceptable. There's a huge difference between a legitimate accident and willful ignorance, incompetence, and misconduct. Failure to properly use ground wires--that most basic of simple, common sense procedures when running electricity into a facility--is what has been cited as a factor in virtually all of the deaths. And never forget that the US Embassy compound was wired up with that same mentality--fuck it, collect the money, and run. The next time Secretary Rice denigrates someone for saying Iraq is a potential "death sentence" all you have to do is cite just how poorly contractors have done their job.

If they don't kill you in the shower, they'll just kill you with contaminated water:

Halliburton Co. [which owns KBR] failed to protect the water supply it is paid to purify for U.S. soldiers throughout Iraq, in one instance missing contamination that could have caused “mass sickness or death,” an internal company report concluded.

The report, obtained by The Associated Press, said the company failed to assemble and use its own water purification equipment, allowing contaminated water directly from the Euphrates River to be used for washing and laundry at Camp Ar Ramadi in Ramadi, Iraq.

The problems discovered last year at that site — poor training, miscommunication and lax record keeping — occurred at Halliburton’s other operations throughout Iraq, the report said.

Bunnatine Greenhouse was demoted for simply saying it out loud--these people didn't know what they were doing and they were awarded their contracts with little or not oversight or review. Just another shameful episode that this Congress is trying to get a hold of, but is being lied to and stonewalled at every turn. It's called "oversight and compliance" and it's back in vogue, whether anyone likes it or not.

War Profiteering Kills

At least a dozen Soldiers and Marines in Iraq have died as a result of electrocution, and the likely culprit? Shoddy construction work by KBR. The Houston-based war-profiteering enterprise received no-bid contracts to build bases and housing facilities for American troops in Iraq, but in multiple cases the electrical work is substandard, lines have been improperly grounded, and the results have been tragic - death by electrocution of at least ten Soldiers and two Marines.

On the fifth anniversary of the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, California Democrat Henry Waxman, chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, sent a letter today to Defense Secretary Robert Gates seeking details about electrocutions of military and contract workers in Iraq and about KBR's role in making electrical repairs.

Defense Department spokesman Chris Isleib said the Pentagon "considers this matter to be serious, and we have referred it to the (Department of Defense) Inspector General for a full investigation."

KBR officials pledged to cooperate fully with agencies involved in the probe.

Waxman has asked the Pentagon to respond to his inquiry by April 4.

The probe was sparked by the death of SSG Ryan Maseth who was electrocuted when he stepped into a shower in his living quarters. The military originally told his mother that he had a small electrical appliance in the shower with him, but that was a cover story; a lie. He was electrocuted because a water pump was improperly installed, and bypassed the circuit breaker.

At first, Maseth's mother tried to get answers on her own, but was unable to. So she contacted her congressman, Jason Altmire, a Democrat. Altmire started digging, and referred what he found to Representative Waxman, who chairs the Oversight Committee.

Those deaths, said Altmire, were "[e]asily preventable. You wonder how it even could happen one time. But if a tragedy does occur once — because of a mistake — how could it possibly occur 12 times?" he asked.

Congressman, don't be coy. Money. That's how it can happen.