Whistleblowers claim contractor fraud ignored

[babylonsister]

It's YOUR money, but who cares?


Whistleblowers claim contractor fraud ignored

Web Posted: 11/04/2007 12:56 AM CDT

Guillermo Contreras
Express-News

Barrington "Barry" Godfrey of Houston tried to get mega-contractor KBR to quit overcharging the government for thousands of troops he said the company never fed.

He alleges he was forced out for raising the issue, and that the Justice Department tried unsuccessfully to keep his allegations secret and then refused to join him in a whistleblower suit.

Iowa businesswoman Beth A. Hanken says she sounded the alarm more than a year ago about the military's principal food distributor in Kuwait, Public Warehousing Co., over allegations it was taking kickbacks from a subcontractor that helped it inflate prices of food for U.S. troops.

A Defense Department official, she claims, responded by forwarding her allegations to Public Warehousing, touching off legal threats that she believes were meant to silence her. The Justice Department this year declined to join a whistleblower lawsuit she filed.

The companies deny any wrongdoing, but Godfrey and Hanken are among a growing list of people who contend they were abandoned by the government when they stuck their necks out to protect taxpayers footing the bill for the war in Iraq.

Alan M. Grayson, who represents Hanken, Godfrey and a handful of other whistleblowers in lawsuits about contracting fraud in Iraq, says the department is thwarting whistleblowers of helping them.

He argues that the Bush administration sweeps many cases under the rug, obtains court orders to keep details from the public and that Justice Department lawyers threaten whistleblowers with dismissal of their cases or contempt of court simply for telling people what they know.

more...

http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/metro/stories/MYSA110407.21A.whistleblower.33cb25c.html

[flashl]

1. Its the most interesting observation yet

here and the public in general. They become righteously indignant about perceived INDIVIDUAL welfare or immigrants “getting over”, yet, corporate welfare and looting of the U.S. treasury do not inflame the same people. This remains a mystery to me.

As whistleblowers goes, look how our government handled meat inspectors who sought to alert the public about moo-cow disease.