Audit Assails State Dept. Role on Iraq Security

Source: NYTimes

A pair of new reports have delivered scorching judgments about the State Department’s performance in overseeing work done by the private companies that the government relies on increasingly in Iraq and Afghanistan to carry out delicate security work and other missions.

A State Department review of its own security practices in Iraq assails the department for poor coordination, communication, oversight and accountability involving armed security companies like Blackwater USA, according to people who have been briefed on the report. In addition to Blackwater, the State Department’s two other security contractors in Iraq are DynCorp International and Triple Canopy.

At the same time, a government audit expected to be released Tuesday says that records documenting the work of DynCorp International, the State Department’s largest contractor, are in such disarray that the department cannot say “specifically what it received” for most of the $1.2 billion it has paid the company since 2004 to train the police in Iraq.

The review of security practices was ordered last month by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, and it did not address the Sept. 16 shooting involving Blackwater guards, which Iraqi investigators said killed 17 Iraqis. The Federal Bureau of Investigation is leading a separate inquiry into that episode.

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/23/washington/23contractor.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin

Source: nytimes







October 23, 2007
2 Reports Assail State Dept. Role in Iraq Security
By ERIC SCHMITT and DAVID ROHDE

WASHINGTON, Oct. 22 — A pair of new reports have delivered sharply critical judgments about the State Department’s performance in overseeing work done by the private companies that the government relies on increasingly in Iraq and Afghanistan to carry out delicate security work and other missions.

........

At the same time, a government audit expected to be released Tuesday says that records documenting the work of DynCorp, the State Department’s largest contractor, are in such disarray that the department cannot say “specifically what it received” for most of the $1.2 billion it has paid the company since 2004 to train the police officers in Iraq.

The review of security practices was ordered last month by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, and it did not address the Sept. 16 shooting involving Blackwater guards, which Iraqi investigators said killed 17 Iraqis. The Federal Bureau of Investigation is leading a separate inquiry into that episode.

But in presenting its recommendations to Ms. Rice in a 45-minute briefing on Monday, the four-member panel found serious fault with virtually every aspect of the department’s security practices, especially in and around Baghdad, where Blackwater has responsibility.

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/23/washington/23contractor.html?_r=1&th=&adxnnl=1&oref=slogin&emc=th&pagewanted=print&adxnnlx=1193137425-D/PohOlG3BfS80xYn9yGdg

In a letter to Ms. Rice on Monday, Representative Henry A. Waxman of California, the Democratic chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, accused the department of failing to respond to a request the committee made in March for DynCorp-related documents. Mr. Waxman, whose committee is investigating the department’s oversight of both DynCorp and Blackwater, demanded that the department send him the records by Nov. 2.

“The police training program is a critical component of the administration’s efforts to bring stability to Iraq,” Mr. Waxman wrote. “It is a matter of serious concern that this critical initiative appears to have been so poorly managed.”

Officials and auditors said the law enforcement bureau that handled the DynCorp contracts was overwhelmed when large police training programs were begun in Afghanistan and Iraq.

A senior State Department official said the bureau was not equipped to handle such large contracts. “You have a perfect storm of bad events,” said the official, who requested anonymity because he was not authorized to comment publicly. “You have huge amounts of money passing through an organization that is being retooled as it’s running the race of its life.”

John M. Broder contributed reporting.

Tue Oct-23-07 05:46 AM
Original message
Audit: ‘Disarray’ on $1.2 billion Iraq DynCorp contract

Audit: ‘Disarray’ on $1.2 billion Iraq contract
U.S. can’t account for DynCorp performance in training police, report says
By Aram Roston
Investigative producer
NBC News

Just as the State Department is trying to work its way clear of its Blackwater troubles, a scathing federal audit released Tuesday exposes a glaring lapse in oversight of another federal contractor in Iraq, DynCorp. DynCorp was supposed to train and equip Iraqi police, but the report says the State Department doesn’t know how most of the money in the billion-plus-dollar program was spent.

The State Department "does not know specifically what it received for most of the $1.2 billion in expenditures under its DynCorp contract for the Iraqi Police Training Program," the audit says. The federal watchdogs, with the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction, or SIGIR, said that they even had to suspend their audit because there wasn't enough data to check the books, which were in “disarray.”

DynCorp’s contract was part of the U.S. strategy to arm and train a new Iraqi police force in the wake of the 2003 invasion. Training the police was a key part of the Bush administration’s efforts in Iraq. The training was considered crucial because police are often unable to withstand insurgent attacks, and are considered penetrated by various militias.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21428395 /

Condaleeza Rice, hailed as a prodigy, has undoubtedlt been the very worst Sec. of State the U.S. has ever had. Of course, her misdeeds are easily overlooked in the face of the worst president and vice-president we have seen as well. The incompetence has risen to criminal level. Billions of dollars that could have fed millions or provided healthcare for millions have been squandered and pillaged by the state dept. Congress needs to hold Rice to task and make her explain each and every lost dollar to the American people. She should be relieved of duty, ridiculed for being the idiot she has shown to be, and imprisoned for derilection of duty. In short, she sucks!

This so-called prodigy has not accomplished a single thing, short of wasting billions of dollars, for the country. A three yr old could have done a better job!

When is congress going to start holding people accoountable? Are they afraid if they do, they themselves will be held accountable? Yeah, well, it is time we started holding someone accountable.

I say we turn Gitmo into a holding facility for corrupt U.S. officials. The facility may have to be expanded to accommodate the large number of criminals now in office and those who have already fled office to avoid prosecution, ie. all the corrupt republicans AND democrats who have facilitated the incompetence.

If they don's support impeachment, hang em.
If they don'r support troop withdrawals.....hang em!
If they don't stop funding of the war...hang em!


Hell, just hang every damn one of em and start anew!


Wanted:

job description:hangman

Must be a multi-tasker and willing to work long hours. Salary commensurate with performance.

Source: CNN

(CNN) -- The U.S. State Department is unable to account for most of $1.2 billion in funding that it gave to DynCorp International to train Iraqi police, a government report said Tuesday.

"The bottom line is that State can't account for where it went," said Glenn D. Furbish, who was involved in putting together the 20-page report for the special inspector general for Iraq reconstruction (SIGIR).




Read more: http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/10/22/dyncorp.spending/index.html

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If you complain about this, you're not supporting the troops. In other related news:

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The Bush administratin on Monday asked Congress for nearly $46 billion in additional war spending for 2008, calling on U.S. lawmakers to approve the money before adjourning for the holidays.

"Parts of this war are complicated, but one part is not -- and that is that America should do what it takes to support our troops and protect our people," Bush said in an appearance with members of veterans groups at the White House.
http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/10/22/war.spending/index.html

Source: BBC News


A $1.2bn (£590m) contract for training Iraqi police was so badly managed that auditors do not know how the money was spent, the US state department says.

The programme was run by a private US company, DynCorp. It insists there has been no intentional fraud.

Auditors have stopped trying to audit the programme because all the documents are in disarray and the government is trying to retrieve some of the money.
>
Correspondents say this case is the latest to highlight problems linked to private companies being awarded lucrative government contracts in Iraq.


Read more: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/7057629.stm

already stolen $8 or $9 billion distributed in paper-bags the robbers "played football" with?

Nobody's gonna actually DO something about it.

Unless... by some unthinkable "miracle"... Dennis Kucinich becomes POTUS one day... (we can dream, can't we?).