We have become accustomed to reports of unimaginable corruption and waste in Afghanistan from bags of money delivered to President Karzai to constructing huge buildings to be immediately torn down to buying aircraft that cannot be used. The common element to the stories is the absence of any reported prosecution or even discipline for those responsible. You can simply waste hundreds of millions of dollars and continue in your government position. This week’s outrage comes from a report of the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR). Among huge examples of waste and delay is this little ditty: USAid paid a $300,000 charge for 600 gallons of diesel fuel. That is $500/gallon to a contractor.
International Organization for Migration paid the contractor the $500 per gallon at a time when the market price in Afghanistan for diesel fuel was less than $5.00 per gallon. The invoice should have demanded $3,000 instead of $300,000. No one was prosecuted for the payment. Likewise, the IOM paid $220,000 for an automatic temperature control device that should have cost between $2,000 and $10,000. Again, no prosecution and no record of any discipline against those signing off on the payment.
We put people in jail for snatching a purse, but a contractor can charge $500 per gallon of gas and neither the contractor nor the government official responsible face any reported sanctions. It appears all “self-serve” at the U.S. Treasury based on the honor system.
Marco, LOL!
David,
Wasn’t it private contractors who wrote the code for the ACA exchange website? Ditto RTC, “It’s mo’ better govt.”
Paulette Williams wrote: “Wasn’t it private contractors who wrote the code for the ACA exchange website?”
When a private company hires another to build a website and they have a profit motive, they make sure it is done right. When government hires a private company, they hire cronies. The government has no business doing health care at all. We need to take away more than half of their money. This is the only way to stop corruption. Take away the money and force them to have a balanced budget every year. If it was up to me, I would also stipulate that they not be allowed to borrow without a 2/3rds majority vote.
Support the Republican Party to insure less corruption? Who are the folks making money from war and post war containment! War is a business, very cleverly wrapped in the flag. Platitudes paper the media with insecure patriotism. I can’t find many people who make this connection. Can you imagine if any administration attempted to reign in the military. I mean, there is no appetite to take a cold eyed look at this condition. It’s an easy sell in this country, if you don’t acquiesce you will be ruined, politically, personally with the reputation as a “traitor! commie! socialist! unpatriotic! citizen not worthy of being an American. We are not a politically savvy population. We are fooled each day by irrational rhetoric into thinking that simplistic solutions are the norm. And you can exploit unexamined, complex conditions that take time and sometimes distance to make clear. We can’t govern if we don’t know what the ramifications are. It’s easier to let someone take the responsibility for the hard decisions. It’s a risky business to be so trustful of unsavory politicians in bed with other’s schemes and just look the other way. Reading is imperative and sometimes we need to read more provocative material to, if nothing else, find out what the other guy’s ideas are. From what I can see this, unfortunately, is as a subversive activity! Biblical and tea party members want their minions to shelter in place! As this is the end of their road, we all have to suffer fools!
I hope the gas was premium grade?!?!?
David,
Limited govt is how this abuse came about, through the insistence on privatizing many functions of teh military and rebuilding effort. Limited govt is mantra that allows much of this abuse to go undetected and unprosecuted. The answer is not just more govt. It’s mo’ better govt
More government waste. Another reason why I support the Republican policy of limited government. Expect this kind of waste in healthcare now that it has become federalized.
Anonymously Yours 1, October 24, 2013 at 7:23 am
When you are part of the mic you can do no wrong….
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That is because since sense left our domestic and foreign policy might makes right, and the epi-right makes might.
We have a new king and a new
economyplutonomy.It’s posturing.
Would anyone here believe the statistic of “1.3% fraud” if this agency “investigated” itself as did the FSN/USDA on SNAP? Rhetorical question. Selective critical thinking is not thinking.
I have read many articles about corruption and bribes as being a way to do business in Afghanistan. (perhaps all of the middle east)
The pentagon is willingly and with knowledge playing the corruption and bribe game as a strategy to achieve goals. (how’s that working !! )
What is beyond the pale, the contractors ….with knowledge of the pentagon, are playing the same BS games.
“War is a racket”
The pentagon with the knowledge and complicity of congress is shoveling money to war profiteers.
There was a time in our country when war profiteering was a dirty word.
Now it is the business of America.
And why do have to cut entitlements?
Exactly, Rafflaw. It’s insane to talk about cutting programs that keep people from living in squalor, when this kind of waste is occurring in the MIC.
“unimaginable corruption and waste” is a given. When I see things like this though I also tend to think, or wonder, is this charge hiding one of the off-book funnels to a militant group leader that we are paying to not fight against us? We know there are on-book aid payments for the same thing but I doubt they tell the entire story. Is this another path for a bribe or bribes to local politicians which seems to be the way business is done. Is this another way to write off protection money for local thugs, or for the Afghan Army, or who knows what? What better cover for political money laundering than the ‘normal’ commercial corruption we have come to expect?
Justice Holmes 1, October 24, 2013 at 7:56 am
Haliburton, Blackwater and the list goes on, it wouldn’t surprise me if wars are started and continued so that Corproations like these can make millions.
*****
Not millions…billions!
In this country today, if you are associated with the word ‘military’ one can get away with anything. It’s shameful and unacceptable.
It’s curious that the Department of Justice was so hard on Bernie Madoff, for ripping off rich people, but have essentially turned a blind eye if the crime victims are the American people.
Nuremberg prosecutor/ Supreme Court justice, Robert Jackson, said that was when prosecutors were at their worst (and bad for society) – when they can pick and choose who to prosecute, not based on the merits of the crime itself – that is exactly where we are today!
Haliburton, Blackwater and the list goes on, it wouldn’t surprise me if wars are started and continued so that Corproations like these can make millions. The lives of soldiers and civilians caught in the hail of cash mean nothing to the corproate CEOs and others whose lives float on the oceans of cash they collect. Cheney and company remain proud of their cash machine. It is senseless and criminal war profiteering and it should be prosecuted. Mr. Holder are you listening?
When you are part of the mic you can do no wrong….
I worked for a contractor when I got out of the Army. I was paid for many hours spent playing Euchre. It’s my understanding fraud, waste and abuse is pretty widespread in the industry.
Reblogged this on Brittius.com.
When a contractor like Haliburton/KBR can KILL our own troops with shoddy electrical work and STILL get a contract, you should know the score…
But even if you let them slide on that, you have one of their own employees that was gang raped, and the company kidnapped & held her under armed guard for wanting to report it! Only a guard letting her use his phone to call her father, who then called his Rep in Washington, who then called embassy personnel to rescue her got her released.
And then you have the company trying to say that their ‘union contract’ prevents her from a lawsuit….FOR A FELONY!?!?
This system is a LOT more screwed up than just over charges….its criminal…