Further fleecing of the taxpayer by contractors

Back Atcha · #1 (**permalink**) 05-23-2008, 12:55 PM

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A Pentagon audit of $8.2 billion in American taxpayer money spent by the United States Army on contractors in Iraq has found that almost none of the payments followed federal rules and that in some cases, contracts worth millions of dollars were paid for despite little or no record of what, if anything, was received.

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The audit also found a sometimes stunning lack of accountability in the way the United States military spent some $1.8 billion in seized or frozen Iraqi assets, which in the early phases of the conflict were often doled out in stacks or pallets of cash. The audit was released Thursday in tandem with a Congressional hearing on the payments.

In one case, according to documents displayed by Pentagon auditors at the hearing before the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, a cash payment of $320.8 million in Iraqi money was authorized on the basis of a single signature and the words “Iraqi Salary Payment” on an invoice. In another, $11.1 million of taxpayer money was paid to IAP, an American contractor, on the basis of a voucher with no indication of what was delivered.

Iraq Spending Ignored Rules, Pentagon Says

BO Nafide · #2 (**permalink**) 05-23-2008, 12:59 PM

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Originally Posted by Back Atcha

Iraq Spending Ignored Rules, Pentagon Says

Who are you blaming? The Contractors or the government?

Back Atcha · #3 (**permalink**) 05-23-2008, 01:17 PM

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Originally Posted by BO Nafide

Who are you blaming? The Contractors or the government?

I wasn't aware I was blaming anyone, I just posted what I thought was an interesting and rather telling article.

It would seem to me that both are at fault.

BO Nafide · #4 (**permalink**) 05-23-2008, 01:27 PM

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Originally Posted by Back Atcha

I wasn't aware I was blaming anyone, I just posted what I thought was an interesting and rather telling article.

It would seem to me that both are at fault.

It would seem so.

I also bet if the government paid more attention to its fiduciary responsibility to the American taxpayer (if they were tighter with the purse strings), the contractors would come around and fly right pretty fast.

RASTAMAN · #5 (**permalink**) 05-28-2008, 05:23 AM

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Originally Posted by BO Nafide

It would seem so.

I also bet if the government paid more attention to its fiduciary responsibility to the American taxpayer (if they were tighter with the purse strings), the contractors would come around and fly right pretty fast.

And what are the responsibilties of the private defense contractor corporations who are fleecing and riping of American tax payers???