FRAUD PAYS OFF FOR PENTAGON CONTRACTORS

Government auditors discovered something odd last year when they reviewed KBR annual cost estimate to provide support services for U.S. troops in Iraq. The contractor proposed charging $110 million for housing, food, water, laundry and other services on bases. The big problem here is that these bases had been shut down and were no longer in need of these services.

KBR dropped their proposed $110 million spending on these closed bases and in return received a contract extension for$3.7 billion. It’s good to have an in with the government.

According to KBR’s spokeswoman heather Browne, The errors occurred because KBR developed the proposal under a tight schedule.

I can’t imagine the IRS accepting that reasoning for your tax records. They would probably grab you, shake you until they got their money and would then throw your ass in jail.

KBR seems to be the biggest offender in this fraudulent money game (and I’m sure you all know KBR was a subsidiary of Houston-based Halliburton until the companies split late last year and that Dick Cheney still works for them). Well, it seems that KBR collects about half of the money that the government spends on contracts in Iraq. This gives them $20.1 billion to stuff in their pockets.

This money is mostly spent on a multiyear contract to provide logistical support of our troops. KBR also has contracts to help rebuild Iraq’s oil industry. I’ll bet they can’t wait to get their hands on that piece of the pie.

Nearly $2.2 billion worth of KBR invoices and cost proposals have been challenged by the Defense Contract Audit Agency (DCAA) which ended up paying only $804 million. Which to my mind, means that KBR was trying to defraud the government out of nearly $1.4 billion dollars.

KBR also tried to overcharge by $30 Billion for shipping containers outfitted as housing for U.S. troops. KBR charged double for some handling costs and sought payment for "unjustified delays".

“The Pentagon needs to crack down on KBR and other contractors,” said Sen. Byron Dorgan of North Dakota, head of the Democratic Policy Committee. "It requires a change in mind-set at the Pentagon, for them to slam their fist down on the table and say, 'We're not going to put up with this anymore.' ".

The government always tries to minimize the number of dollars they spend, so instead of writing it out as $422, 000,000,000 they write it as $422 billion, but do you really know how much a billion is?

A billion is a thousand million.

To place it in a better perspective, a billion seconds ago, it was the year1959.

Humans first learned to write 252 billion seconds ago.

A billion minutes ago, Jesus was alive.

A billion hours ago, our ancestors were living in the Stone Age.

A billion dollars ago was only 8 hours and 20 minutes, at the rate Washington spends it.

Remember folks, these billions with which KBR is lining their pockets comes right out of your taxes while you struggle to put food on the table.

The California Curmudgeon