White House Shoots Down Army’s Effort To Increase Oversight Of Defense Contractors
White House Shoots Down Army’s Effort To Increase Oversight Of Defense Contractors
Since 2002, the Army’s contracting budget has ballooned from $46 billion to $112 billion in 2007. However, as the AP reported last week, the number of investigators charged with hunting down fraudulent or wasteful contracts has stayed the same, at less than 100 agents.
Now the Army has proposed adding five active-duty generals who would oversee purchasing and monitor contractor performance — a move recommended by a blue-ribbon panel last fall. But the White House, through the Office of Management and Budget, “has shot down” the Army’s plan:
According to a May 28 report to Congress on the status of the recommendations, Army Secretary Pete Geren said a proposal for five extra generals was submitted in March to OMB for approval. The office’s role is to ensure proposed budgets and legislation are consistent with the administration’s policies.
On May 12, the Army learned its proposal had been rejected. The report does not say why. A week after the rejection, the Army appealed OMB’s decision.
The Army’s proposal of adding five oversight generals would cost a mere $1.2 million a year in personnel costs. By contrast, a Defense Contract Audit Agency found $4.9 billion “in overpricing and waste” in Iraq contracts since 2003, which doesn’t include the additional $5.1 billion “in expenses charged without documentation.” In other words, the White House opposes a contract oversight proposal that would cost a mere .012 percent of the $10 billion already lost to contract waste.
Last year, the White House tried to block legislation that would limit the use of no-bid contracts and require greater congressional oversight. Despite Bush’s opposition, the Senate passed the bill unanimously, and the House approved it with 347 votes.
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lol that was considered criminal behavior in another time and place.
June 23rd, 2008 at 10:52 amSurprise. Suprise.
June 23rd, 2008 at 10:53 amAnd don’t expect the Dems to say anything about this either.
And it is unsually the other way around….
June 23rd, 2008 at 10:55 amOf course under different administration.
‘No Bid Contracts’ and ‘Cost Plus’ contracts are nothing but a license to steal Federal dollar.
June 23rd, 2008 at 10:59 amWhite House Shoots Down Army’s Effort To Increase Oversight Of Defense Contractors
Do you expect anything less from an administration where the majority have never served, and don’t know one single thing about war and combat?
June 23rd, 2008 at 11:00 amOn May 12, the Army learned its proposal had been rejected. The report does not say why.
Because it would not have looked very good for the report to state, “in order to better facilitate wholesale thievery and corruption”?
June 23rd, 2008 at 11:00 amI guess Darth and Dubya needed to make sure their final days were still feeding their piggy banks for that big escape to Paraguay and Dubai.
Gotta love those ‘ethical’ Repugs!
June 23rd, 2008 at 11:01 amWas it Jerry Bremer that couldn’t account for $6-$7 Billion in Iraq? Was the WH worried? No.
As we see the Bush cabal ignore our wasted billions in this illegal invasion we’re now seeing complicity among the Dems.
Why is this? Sure, a handful of pols continue to say and sometimes even do what’s best for our citizens. Unfortunately, many only line their own pockets or position themselves for re-election.
I believe ‘08, Presidential race aside, is even more important than ‘06. ‘06 got Washington’s attention, but 2 years has allowed the lazy, self-absorbed pols to relax right back into the same old same old.
We need to publicize the fact that ‘08 means voting for the right person, not just party affiliation.
As Speaker of the House, I never thought anyone could surpass Hastert’s incompetence, but Pelosi is giving him a run for cheap talk, inaction and bad decisions.
The election is just a little over 4 months away. Make sure you tell your friends & family that voting for competence and honesty is not just needed, it’s critical to our survival.
June 23rd, 2008 at 11:02 amWhere are our favorite trolls? They should be here defending their fearless leaders.
June 23rd, 2008 at 11:04 am*
Come on, earn your pay!
*
Helloooo!
*
Anybody?
Hmmm.. Has anyone seen lock_box complaining about his Republican President wasting tax-payer money? Or noting his GOP complaining about it?
I thought not.
June 23rd, 2008 at 11:05 amWell you know this Rethug administration is for smaller government.
June 23rd, 2008 at 11:06 amA revolution may be imminent if this sh*t keeps up.
June 23rd, 2008 at 11:09 amWhat’s a coupla hundred billion amongst friends?
June 23rd, 2008 at 11:15 amOf course, Georgie wants to keep them’ cowboys free on the range! The idiot doesn’t know how to spell ‘rule of law’ much less follow it.
June 23rd, 2008 at 11:15 amThe election is just a little over 4 months away. Make sure you tell your friends & family that voting for competence and honesty is not just needed, it’s critical to our survival.
and for whom do you propose one should vote to realize that miraculous competence? Obama? he supports the FISA/PAA “compromise.” Which is to say, he supports the final castration of the 4th Amendment…
At least, I guess, he’s not lying about it…
June 23rd, 2008 at 11:16 amunbelievable Says:
A revolution may be imminent if this sh*t keeps up.
Our golf course just switched to electric cars to avoid high fuel costs. I mentioned to the owner that if gas prices continue to climb, we may see a 2nd revolution in America…he said, ‘I think that’s what we need’.
Now, this is a rightie talking!
Don’t let your friends or family fall for the ‘more drilling’ bullshit line they’re throwing out now. That line is the only talking point they could come up with to divert attention from the truth of the matter.
The ‘McChurian Candidate’ is falling all over this like it’s his salvation, when it’s just McIIIrd continuing bad policy.
June 23rd, 2008 at 11:17 amLast week OMB re-started the $35 Billion USAF Air Tanker competition after Beoing had lost it by default to Airbus.Now the aircraft performance requirements are being re-written.
Now there’s this story.
Clearly the OMB’s rejection of oversight here has no merit ( otherwise they’d at least explain their decision). I wonder if the re-opening of the USAF Tanker deal is similarly tainted as its being re-started ostensibly because of OMB recommendations?
June 23rd, 2008 at 11:19 amtokin librul Says:
and for whom do you propose one should vote to realize that miraculous competence?
That’s the rub. It requires an actual awareness of a candidate’s qualities, not just their rhetoric. As I noted in the post, ‘Presidential race aside’.
(I wish I could just name candidates worthy of being elected, but I cannot.)
June 23rd, 2008 at 11:20 amMaybe Tracy5 will tell us how privatising saves the taxpayers money..
June 23rd, 2008 at 11:21 amThis is another perfect no-lose issue that the Dems should be hitting Bush and the GOP over the head with RIGHT NOW, yet, as with so many other issues, the Dems are sitting with their thumbs up their butts. Certainly the information about what the WH did was not secret; such geniuses as Carl Levin, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee should have known. If that idiot was actually doing his job—as opposed to stepping on his dick trying to get the Michigan primary moved up and screwing it up royally in the process—he would have provided the Dems and Obama with this information a month ago. IF the Democrats had any brains, they would have already been airing an ad about this across the country for two weeks now, and Obama would have been pounding McCain and Bush on it incessantly. But, just like so many other obvious issues that the Congressional and national Dems have been to lazy or stupid to capitalize on, this one will undoubtedly disappear.
It’s just another piece of proof that the current collection of Democratic “leaders”— starting with Reid and Pelosi but certainly not ending there— is the most pathetically feckless, flaccid, incompetent, and above all gutless group of politicians either party has been afflicted with in our nation’s history.
June 23rd, 2008 at 11:23 amWhite House Shoots Down Army’s Effort To Increase Oversight Of Defense Contractors
Bush’s sh*t sandwich, is now a six foot sub, with crooks and cronies lovingly preparing it to be served to the American people, the day they leave office. They won’t have to eat it, so they ladle on the fraud in big greasy dollops, and coat it with a thin, sugary rationale, to mask the initial taste.
And it seems the dems are intent on forcing it down our throats, for a few extra seats.
June 23rd, 2008 at 11:24 amXisithrus Says:
Maybe Tracy5 will tell us how privatising saves the taxpayers money..
And why would Tracy5 care about taxpayer money, when it is clear he/she/it is either a DoD contractor or in the ‘awl bidness’?
That typical Repug attitude: I got mine, Cheney you!
June 23rd, 2008 at 11:24 amZimzone, Unbeleivable:
We’ve been having a revolutiuon since the 2000 coup. It’s just not been a public, take to the streets-typepopular revolution. Instead it’s been the wrong kind of revolution. )Sigh(
June 23rd, 2008 at 11:24 amCall this the “Three Monkeys” initiative.
June 23rd, 2008 at 11:31 am“Off topic”, but sheds light on just how f***ed up the Pentagon is and out of whack their priorities are thanks to this criminal administration and their “leadership” (makes me want to puke):
Ken Ham, chief wackaloon at Answers in Genesis, was invited to speak…at a Pentagon prayer breakfast.
Just let that sink in.
There are people at the Pentagon who are in charge of planning where your sons and daughter and nephews and nieces and other beloved family members and friends will be sent to put their lives at risk. There are people there who can send missiles and bombers anywhere in the world. There are people there who control nuclear weapons.
And they think Ken Ham is a fine-and-dandy, clever feller.
It’s almost enough to make me wish I could pray. It’s not just Ham, either — it’s that the people with the big guns have prayer breakfasts.
And then, somehow, he segues into babbling about the existence of life on other worlds. He doesn’t think there is any. Look at the logic this kook uses:
The real world is the biblical world–a universe designed by God with the Earth at the spiritual focal point, not an evolutionary universe teeming with life. … Extraterrestrial life is an evolutionary concept; it does not comport with the biblical teachings of the uniqueness of the Earth and the distinct spiritual position of human beings.
Because the bible says we are the focus of the entire universe, there can’t possibly be any competitors. Of course, this means that his god created this vast, empty, uninhabitable space for no reason other than that we’ll have twinkly little stars in the sky at night…but hey, that’s the crazy Christian deity, always doing irrational stuff and encouraging his followers to be equally nuts.
http://scienceblogs.com/ pharyngula/ 2008/ 06/ now_im_going_to_have_nightmare.php
June 23rd, 2008 at 11:33 amFascism can’t work if there’s oversight and accountability.
June 23rd, 2008 at 11:35 am“That typical Repug attitude: I got mine, Cheney you!”
What does the verb, “to Cheney” mean? To go F- yourself or to get shot in the face?
June 23rd, 2008 at 11:40 amLast year, the White House tried to block legislation that would limit the use of no-bid contracts and require greater congressional oversight. Despite Bush’s opposition, the Senate passed the bill unanimously, and the House approved it with 347 votes.
This is hardly surprising for a privatization ideologue like Bush where free markets rule and if innocent Iraqis should get killed then caveat emptor and if tax payer dollars are lost/wasted/stolen, then it’s just another reason to lower taxes.
http://progressiveworldreview.com
June 23rd, 2008 at 11:41 amFunny how even the military knows they aren’t getting a fair job done for their budget money.
June 23rd, 2008 at 11:41 amSqueaky Wheels Says:
“That typical Repug attitude: I got mine, Cheney you!”
What does the verb, “to Cheney” mean? To go F- yourself or to get shot in the face?
Yep, can mean both, depending on the situation. Quite a useful little term, isn’t it?
June 23rd, 2008 at 11:45 amThe Army Contracting Command will be headed initially by Jeffrey Parsons, a civilian official, an appointment that underscores how few senior Army officers there are with extensive credentials in defense contracting. (April 2008)
This is to help the Army combat Contract Fraud from an article back in April. The problem is they are understaffed and are not prepared to deal with this many wars all at the same time. In April, the Army had plans to hire 1,400 new personnel to help with these ongoing problems. But it will take 2 to 3 years to hire that many people.
This administration is only perpetuating the problem, with an inadequate amount of people doing the acquisitions and investigating potential fraud.
“Since 2005, the Army Criminal Investigation Command has opened 168 investigations related to contract fraud in Iraq, Kuwait and Afghanistan, according to spokesman Chris Grey. Ninety-five of those cases are ongoing. Of the 73 that have been closed, the subjects were indicted, the allegations turned out to be false, or the inquiry ended because of a lack of evidence.”
June 23rd, 2008 at 11:58 amWhats a few billion dollars here and there for Bush’s buddies, when the country is already trillions in debt? Americans are not paying attention to the publics finance, so why not plunder it while their not looking? Their busy being distracted by the latest news on Britney Spears, they won’t notice!
June 23rd, 2008 at 12:15 pmCaption:
June 23rd, 2008 at 12:15 pm‘If I were a real pilot, I’d take off at the end of this carrier, right over there’.
Dumb Question: Why would the “Accountability President” object to auditing controls ?
June 23rd, 2008 at 12:20 pmHmmm…I think I can understand why the Army wants some oversight of contractors. They are probably tired of their soldiers getting electrocuted in the shower, or getting sick from having to bathe and launder their clothing with contaminated water.
But why would the White House have any objections to making sure that our contractors demonstrate some compentence? Oh right — it would cut into their profit margin.
June 23rd, 2008 at 12:25 pmHey, it’s only money and at least it isn’t going to hungry kidsd or national healthcare because that would be wasteful.
June 23rd, 2008 at 12:29 pmCaption:
“Look away from my cod-piece, young man, yonder is the Mission Accomplished sign.”
_AIO_
June 23rd, 2008 at 12:32 pmFor all we know there could be marching in the streets against this administration every day. Would the media tell us if there was a rebellion going on? They don’t even show us the coffins of dead soldiers we know exist.
June 23rd, 2008 at 12:40 pmbush’s O.M.B. =
Office of Maintaining Bullsh@t.
June 23rd, 2008 at 12:54 pmSHHH!</you’ll destroy the gravy train.
June 23rd, 2008 at 12:57 pmwait, no trolls to say how this is efficient government at play here? No trolls to say how defense contractors stealing billions of our taxpayer dollars is not a waste, but Social Security or our schools are?
I AM SHOCKED I tell you!
June 23rd, 2008 at 3:12 pmConservative’s OMB = MUADHA
“Money Up A Dead Hog’s Ass”
video report on MUADHA
http://www.thedossier.ukonline.co.uk/video_iraqwar.htm
June 23rd, 2008 at 5:03 pm