There was an earlier thread that claimed if we wanted to get better care for our veterans we needed to pay more taxes. It was mentioned in the replies that "Americans get what they pay for" and that "money solves "management problems.". Well, I saw Iraq For Sale recently and this thread kinda pissed me off, so I thought a reminder of why our Vets aren't getting proper care was in order. From the Congressional Record:
...This morning, finally, the Washington Post says: ``The Army to End Expansive, Exclusive Halliburton Deal. Logistics Contract to be Open for Bidding.'' One of the side bars of the story talks about: ``Whistle-blowers told how the company charged $45 per case of soda, double-billed on meals, and allowed troops to bathe in contaminated water.'' All of these were issues given us to us by whistle-blowers who came to our Committee to testify because there was virtually no oversight on these issues by the other Committees.
...A fellow named Henry Bunting testified at a hearing we held. He was a whistle-blower. He actually worked for Halliburton in Kuwait. His job in Kuwait was to purchase hand towels for American soldiers. So he got a requisition to buy hand towels for American soldiers, and he would order the hand towels. But then he was told: No, we don't want you to order those hand towels; we want you to order new hand towels. He brought a sample of the hand towels with him. The reason they wanted him to order different hand towels is they wanted the company name to be embroidered on the hand towels, which tripled the cost of the towels for the taxpayers.
No one would have believed that soldiers need to have hand towels with the embroidered name of the contractor providing the hand towels. That is exactly what happened. And it is exactly what the whistle-blowers told us was happening with respect to procurement.
This whistle-blower, who worked with the company, said: This is something my supervisor said we are going to do, and we did it. He said: We saw $8,500-a-month SUV rentals. We saw $40, $45 a case for Coca-Cola
It is pretty unbelievable when you hear all of the stories. Those stories come from giving billions of dollars of contracts to one company. That is what has happened on contracts called LOGCAP and RIO, and finally the Pentagon suggests maybe it is going to shut these down and require competition.
....it is interesting that this also relates to something that is now happening in the Pentagon. The woman who testified before the committee--there has been a great deal of discussion about her--was Bunny Greenhouse, the top civilian contracting official in the Corps of Engineers at the Pentagon. She rose to the top. Every performance evaluation said she was the best. People outside the Government who had dealt with her said she was the best, professional, knew what she was doing. She said:
I can unequivocally state that the abuse related to contracts awarded to KBR--
That is Halliburton--
represents the most blatant and improper contract abuse I have witnessed during the course of my professional career.
This woman was honest and public about what she saw. She was demoted. She lost her job. That job has now been filled by someone else, someone who has 40 years experience with the Government but has no contracting experience. A person with 20 years contracting experience, the highest civilian official in the Corps of Engineers
loses her job to be replaced by someone who is now being sent to school because she doesn't know contracting.
This is happening at a time when we hear these stories of $85,000 trucks left by the side of the road to be burned because of a flat tire--the taxpayer is paying for it; it doesn't matter--25 tons of nails, 50,000 pounds of nails ordered, wrong size, throw them in the sand. Want to find 25 tons of nails? They are in the sand in Iraq, paid for by the American taxpayer.
Where is the accountability? It is unbelievable the amount of waste that has existed. And the one person who had the courage to talk about it publicly lost her job. That is still the subject of a great deal of angst in the Pentagon.
So yesterday the Pentagon announces that they are finally going to end sole-source contracts and require competitive bidding, and finally the taxpayers appear to get a break. But this was several overdue.
...Here is another whistleblower account. Rory Mayberry worked in Iraq for Halliburton. He worked in food service. He was the manager of a food service that provided food to the troops. He came to us and said: We had food that was date stamped expired. The Halliburton supervisors said: It doesn't matter, just feed to it the troops. And they said: By the way, don't you dare talk to a Government auditor. If a Government auditor comes around and you talk to that person, either you will be fired or you will be sent to an area where there is hostile action. He talked to a Government auditor. He was sent to Fallujah during the height of the action there.
http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?r109:S12JY6-0016:Oh and BTW, the above mentioned bill to require competitive bidding was killed by the GOP:
http://www.democrats.com/node/9271So please, keep telling me how I should keep giving these war junkies money to buy food and watch them use it instead to get their fix.
edited for brain fart
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