DeNeice Kenehan 2 hrs-- What happens to a company that fleeces American taxpayers out of $757 million? Rather than blacklist it, the U.S. government rewards it with a monstrous, not-bid contract extension worth more than $4 billion. This may seem inconceivable, but it’s not uncommon among many government agencies. In this case, the Department of Defense (DOD), the Pentagon, is the offender. A private firm hired to provide food and water to U.S. troops in Afghanistan “overbilled” taxpayers by $757 million and, rather than severing ties, the agency rewarded it with more business. The deal, one of the largest U.S. military contracts in Afghanistan, involves a company named Supreme Foodservice GmbH that also provided the same services for British troops in the region. The original U.S. contract with Supreme exceeds $3 billion and dates back to 2005. This month a congressional hearing exposed how the company tried to cheat taxpayers by, among other things, improperly billing for a $58 million warehouse and by charging $12 million to deliver food just across the street from that facility! At the hearing, before the House Oversight and Governmental Reform Subcommittee on National Security, the DOD Inspector General provided alarming figures that show agency officials failed to provide “sufficient oversight” of the monstrous contract. As a result, the Pentagon overpaid more than $750 million, including $98.4 million in transportation costs and $454.9 million to airlift fresh fruits and vegetables, according to the watchdog. judicialwatch.org/blog/2013/04/dod-awards-no-bid-contract-to-co-that-overbilled-it-757-mil/ As the war in Afghanistan approaches its 10th anniversary, a pair of new reports have just come out revealing how the Pentagon has squandered tens of billions of dollars while tripling the amount of no-bid contracts. The bipartisan Commission on Wartime Contracting has concluded that between $31 billion to $60 billion spent on projects in Iraq and Afghanistan over the last 10 years have been lost to waste and fraud. In Afghanistan, the commission found the U.S. is indirectly funding the Taliban as money diverted from U.S.-backed projects is paid out to militants to ensure safety.(2011) m.democracynow.org/stories/12134
Posted on: Sat, 15 Mar 2014 18:25:46 +0000
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