Sunday, March 28, 2010
For $5 million the Department of Defense got 43 minutes of work—a month—out of each mechanic hired by defense contractor KBR Inc. to repair vehicles at Joint Base Balad near Baghdad, Iraq. This enormous waste of taxpayer dollars was uncovered by the Pentagon’s inspector general, who found 144 civilian mechanics operated with virtually no oversight from the U.S. Army.
KBR, once a subsidiary of Halliburton, has made billions of dollars off the Iraq war. In fact, the company’s poor performance at Joint Base Balad did not prevent it from receiving another contract—this one for up to $2.8 billion—just before the release of the inspector general’s report.
-Noel Brinkerhoff
KBR Bills $5 Million for Mechanics Who Work 43 Minutes a Month (by Adam Weinstein, Mother Jones)
Contracting for Tactical Vehicle Field Maintenance at Joint Base Balad, Iraq (Inspector General, Department of Defense) (pdf)
U.S. Army Burn Pit Victim Dies after Battle with Leukemia (by Noel Brinkerhoff, AllGov)
Pentagon Fines KBR…Then Gives it a $2.8 Billion Contract (by Noel Brinkerhoff, AllGov)
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