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TechnoratiUS Army Paid Bonuses to KBR Despite Questions
WASHINGTON - The U.S. Army paid "tens of millions of dollars in bonuses" to KBR Inc, its biggest contractor in Iraq, even after it concluded the firm's electrical work had put U.S. soldiers at risk, according to a source close to a U.S. congressional investigation.
The Senate Democratic Policy Committee plans to hold a hearing on Wednesday to examine KBR's operations in Iraq, and question why the Army rewarded the Houston-based company.
The panel says KBR has been linked to at least two, and as many as five, electrocution deaths of U.S. soldiers and contractors in Iraq due to "shoddy work."
Investigators believe hundreds of other soldiers may have received electrical shocks, the source added. The Army is investigating.
The company denies responsibility for any of the electrocutions, saying it is proud of its work and that its employees make great sacrifices to get the job done.
KBR was part of Halliburton Co until two years ago. Former Vice President Dick Cheney served as Halliburton's chief executive from 1995 to 2000, when he became George Bush's running mate.
During the Bush administration, some critics claimed Cheney's deferred compensation from the company represented a conflict of interest and questioned Halliburton's winning of lucrative government contracts in Iraq.
Military reports have criticized KBR's work in Iraq in recent years. Yet afterward, the company received "tens of millions of dollars in bonuses," said the source, who declined to be identified.
"We want to know why," the source said.
The military was invited to send a witness to testify at Wednesday's hearing, but the committee agreed to let it submit a written statement instead, the source said. Witnesses who are expected to attend include a former KBR electrician.
On Tuesday, the Army had no immediate comment when asked about the bonuses.
THREAT OF FIRE
A September 30, 2008, letter to KBR from an officer in the Defense Department's Defense Contract Management Agency had harsh words for the company.
"We cannot overemphasize the significance of the lack of sustained electrical support services being provided by KBR in Iraq to maintain the minimum life, health and safety standards in support of our warfighters," wrote Captain David Graff, an agency commander.
A February 2007 report by the agency also raised concerns about KBR and its subcontractors in Iraq -- while acknowledging the difficulty of working in a war environment.
"Primary safety threat, theater wide, is fire due to the inferior 220 electrical fixtures found throughout Iraq," it said. "Improper installation, substandard equipment purchases (such as light fixtures) and heavy usage appears to be the three primary causes of these fires."
U.S. lawmakers have raised concerns about the U.S. military's increased use of private contractors in Iraq and Afghanistan and have said KBR and other companies should be held accountable.
KBR spokeswoman Heather Browne said, "KBR remains proud of the work it performs in Iraq."
"We remain committed to engaging in a transparent and more importantly, a fact-based dialogue on this issue while pledging continued full cooperation and support to the military."
The Senate Democratic Policy Committee is the research arm of the Senate Democratic leadership and often conducts investigations of its own.
(Editing by Cynthia Osterman)
33 Comments so far
Show AllAre these people plain stupid? Or stupid AND corrupted? What is it going to take to clean up the American cesspool?
I worked as a civilian employee of the Navy for many years. I can't tell you how many projects were totally botched and declared outstanding successes with bonuses passed all around. What? You didn't realize government employees got bonuses? Well they do. And often for doing nothing ultimately but wasting more tax dollars. But that's the thing isn't it? Its not treated like real money. Its only tax dollars. Its not like anyone had to work hard for that money. It just shows up and needs to be spent. The Navy is currently trying to implement an ERP project. They've spent well over a billion dollars on it with nothing yet to show for it. They are using SAP software. SAP states that if your new systems are not implemented EXACTLY as prescribed by SAP that your project WILL fail. Not MAY fail. WILL fail. But, the Navy always has a better idea. They are trying to make the SAP software fit their existing paradigms. They have no interest in redesigning their systems to mesh with SAP. And they are failing. And spending money by the truckload. And failing. And spending money by the truckload. And failing. But I assure you. After the project is implementd, no one will use the new overly complicates systems. They will revert to the legacy system. And the ERP project will be declared a rousing success and the bonuses will be passed all around, mostly to upper management.
I worked in IT for years. Some of this sounds familiar. Those of us at the lower echelons (the techies) would cringe at some of the decisions. Frequently our warnings were unheeded, and at times we later found out that someone had an interest in some hardware or software being considered.
I'll bet you dollars against donuts that some of the Navy brass have a reason to select SAP, whatever that is.
Joe
SAP is a German software company providing Enterprise Resource Planning and Implementation software. I suspect your are correct in your speculation about the reasons to select SAP over some AMERICAN company.
It's been quite a while since bonuses reflected merit. Perhaps in some middle layers of a company they still do. But at the top, people give themselves bonuses because they CAN.
In this case, they army personnel in charge and the executives in KBR function as soulless brothers, sharing their smug and secretive rich white man showtime Christianity and a total lack of concern for the troops. The useless government officials who are supposed to monitor these things are also at fault.
Joe
I'm not sure, not having read the article, but the title tells me that this is sort of old news; seeming to recall that there were articles some years ago about the Army paying out bick bucks to KBR without the company having honoured its end of the contract(s). That was perhaps not about bonuses, in formal terms, that is, but one hell of a bonus it'd be if you had a contract requiring real work on your part and you got paid without doing the work or much of it!
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"Trailing Begonia May 20th, 2009 9:01 pm
Hey, maybe KBR is really undercover and working for the Iraqis. All the "electrocutions" are not really the result of shobby work but very, very soffisticated torture. ..."
Funny, a little anyway.
Maybe what KBR had done was to employ "electricians" who were not of the U.S. and weren't qualified in terms of knowing how to [safely] do the electrical work; like paying people who had maybe repaired a toaster's broken electrical cord once or twice, but never having taken courses to become electricians and never having worked any time at all, or not enough time, with experienced, professional electricians, a way through which the expertise could be learned on the job.
After all, U.S. corporations lust for [cheap] labour.
Nanoo
Mistakes Were Made, Now pay for them.
Hey, maybe KBR is really undercover and working for the Iraqis. All the "electrocutions" are not really the result of shobby work but very, very soffisticated torture. Ha! Boy, with friends like, who the hell needs enemies, eh? Leave 'em in Iraq and they'll end up causing the US to lose the war...well, in case it hadn't already.
Hey, maybe KBR is really undercover and working for the Iraqis. All the "electrocutions" are not really the result of shobby work but very, very soffisticated torture. Ha! Boy, with friends like, who the hell needs enemies, eh? Leave 'em in Iraq and they'll end up causing the US to lose the war...well, in case it hadn't already.
Conservatives actually admire crooked big businessmen as good examples of the competitive capitalism that made this God fearing country great.
The banksters and other Wall Street hucksters got rewarded with ample bonuses through life insurance policies on their workers so why shouldn't KBR's people be rewarded with nice bonuses in the form of life insurance policies on Shotgun Dick? He can be worth more and more after death. Eternal reward.
humph...
truth commission?
what about supplying our soldiers with the basics?
like water?
believe it or not, our soldiers have to steal water to survive out there...here is the story:
http://www.khou.com/topstories/stories/khou090511_tnt_water-shortages-iraq-soldiers.16ebba1d.html
suprised anybody?
Id be ticked off...
lets have another investigation, or a hearing, a truth commission perhaps.--------http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pow5_UYKaJ8&feature=related
hoghungry1
I am an IBEW journeyman wireman. Work here in WV when times are good.
Just spoke to a friend who is redeploying and had to take an update on electricity in Iraq.
EVERYTHING is just twisted and taped. Sandwich bags serve as insulation. KBR just goes along with the plan and they are now training our troops to do the same. They "warn" them that the electric may be substandard and to expect it.
Jesus Jumping Christ on a crutch!
Let these guys bankrupt the country. Let those who want to fight, go ahead and fight. If they get fried in the shower, well, it was patriotic. Only when the money runs out will we have peace. I am ready.
Where to start. If then VP Cheney had not rewritten the laws regarding contractors duties this would never have been an issue. Halliburton the company cheney was in charge of prior to becoming vp had been charged 3 times with violating their contracts. They should have been made to play triple damages and never rewarded another contract. But no this was cheesy cheneys company. Then after then spun off KBR
(which would never existed if it were not for Cheney rewriting the contractors laws) the shoddy work continued.
Isn’t it great how war profiteering VP can rewrite the militaries laws so they can create a multi-billion dollar international company. And naturally the republican owned, controlled, and sponsored propaganda machine aka..the MSM says nothing.
Can anyone imagine if cheney were a democrat what a scandal KBR and Halliburton would be? Every question to Cheney would be, “why did cheney keep receiving money from Halliburton illegally while vp pres”, or “why did Halliburton keep receiving muilti-billion no-bid contracts after they performed the work so poorly”, or any of a thousand other question that a responsible “free press” would ask. But since all America has for a press is the MSM which only serves the people that own and control it, who are they worthless, scum, that should be shot for treason, we will never know any of the answers.
I hope our great president Barack Obama remembers he was elected to bring change not more of the same.
220V in the shower? Can't believe it.
"Mission Accomplished"
Return of the rule of law and respecting the Constitution would do wonders for D.C. Emergency Rooms. They would be filled with Senators, Congressmen and Administration stalwarts shocked almost to death by the idea.
Maybe KBR should hire the Ashcroft Group (article on left margin) to tweak their image. I hear they've got a lot of juice.
It's been standard operating procedure since the fifties:
Government contracts with a corporation to deliver a weapon for a given price.
After numerous delays and cost overruns a product is delivered that is so shoddy that it gets uncounted soldiers killed.
Same company contracts to deliver the same produce for three times the price of the first and promises to do it right this time.
After numerous delays and cost overruns...
One Russian designed and built the first AK-47. It has been the weapon of choice for soldiers everywhere since then.
I fully agree with a minor exception, an AK47 is not a... ughm... tank. I don't remember the nomenclature (was it a T-1 Abrhams?) built in the seventies and eighties that had to be redesigned for desert work. The blowers or turbochargers were sucking sand into the engines. Any help on those? I believe they are in use now. Not that I care.
I think he's referring to the M-16. And you should check out the HBO movie The Pentagon Wars, it's great.
You are correct, and thank you.
Pleeeaze. Not another bogus hearing!
KBR's been electrocuting, and poisoning our troops with tainted water for years, it's old news, the whole country knows, yet they just got millions in bonus pay.
Since the president morphed into a figurehead put in place to carry out corporate interests, why are we paying over 500 people to play the most expensive game of charades ever?
Time to face reality and get rid of the whole overpaid, useless, greedy bunch. King Obama's getting it done on his own.
Yessiree, nothing's better than a hearing!! No need to prosecute... we're gonna get a hearing!!!
Yeah, just like "conflict of interest" used to be the kiss of death. Now it is a job requirement.
'War profiteering' used to have a negative connotation.
Now it's a career path.
odoco
This is old news, as well as not being a very informative, complete description of KBR's malfeasance. It's history goes back to the very beginning of the war: charging $100 per bag of laundry in Iraq; providing nonpotable water to troops, sickening many of them in the process; consistently overcharging for services rendered (inflating number of meals served to US combat troops - price of gasoline, etc.) Or how about the KBR female employee who was drugged, raped, then placed in a sealed container so she could not make contact with outside assistance??? And this story DID GET TO CONGRESS - AND NOTHING HAPPENED!!!!
KBR continues to state since they are affiliated with the DoD they cannot be sued, yet simultaneously claim the DoD has not legal authority to monitor or correct its abuses.
This government is totally out of control. The voice of the people is a meaningless, vague and intangible appendage to what is supposed to be a democratic republic. I am not for anarchy, but I am for accountability, rule of law, and punishment for those who have disgraced this country.
Unfortunately, there is a long and dubious history of American defense contractors supplying poor weaponry, inferior construction, & poisonous food: the embalmed beef scandal of the Spanish American War immediately springs to mind. In these prior instances, as with KBR, the perpetrators of malfeasance mostly got away with it due to political connections. It would not be a leap to guess that the Cheney family has socked away many fortunes in an off-shore tax haven or two or three.
I think it's due more to the sad fact that the military has been so gutted and privatized that it can't do anything without these major corporations. If KBR were to stop its services, who would feed the troops (spoiled) food, set up (electrified) showers, and give them (nonpotable) water to drink? The military is incapable of supporting itself anymore.
The banksters and other Wall Street hucksters got rewarded with ample bonuses, so why shouldn't KBR's people be rewarded with nice bonuses?
It's only fair. I mean, we wouldn't want to start a policy of double standards, would we?
I started petitioning Congress for proper bonuses for Blackwater's higher-ups, too (I mean, the leaders of the enterprise who are working in nice offices in the United States, not the folks on the ground in Iraq, whose contracts state their compensation very precisely and satisfactorily).
Exactly, Abendland. It is the duty of those headed for peonage (us) to support further government of the plutocracy, by the plutocracy, and for the plutocracy. So it has been since 1789, and it's served us so well.