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Internal State Dep't Review Finds Dep't in Afghanistan Can't Account for $28 Million in Contractor-Used Cars, Guns, Radios
A September 2007 State Department report, obtained by TPMmuckraker, found that contractors DynCorp and Blackwater can't account for $28.4 million in U.S. government-issued property in Afghanistan, including armored cars, guns and radios.
The report, prepared by the State Department inspector-general's office, hits the department for its lack of "adequate internal control over the government property held by contractors." It calls the property lists provided by State officials managing the contract in Afghanistan "incomplete and, therefore, unreliable." The $28.4 million worth of missing or poorly-documented property represents 21 percent of the government property held by DynCorp and Blackwater.
In some cases, the property has disappeared into a bureaucratic morass, thanks to State's improper bookkeeping. But in other cases, the property appears to be simply gone. For instance, the report finds:
OIG [the Office of the Inspector General] found all of the selected WPPS [Worldwide Personnel Protective Service] items on the property list but was unable to locate some of the items (see Table 3), including vehicles, a weapon, generators, computers, radios, and phones, on the Civilian Police and WRAP [Weapons Removal and Abatement Program] lists.
DynCorp holds the Civilian Police and WRAP contracts. The WPPS contract is held by Blackwater, and the report doesn't accuse Blackwater of mishandling government property. But it does say that Blackwater didn't include the cost of 91 percent of items on its property list reviewed by the inspector general. As a result, inspectors were unable to verify that the money cited by Blackwater for the purchase of "any of its vehicles and much of its communications equipment" was properly spent.
It wouldn't be the first time inspectors hit the department for inadequate bookkeeping. In October, Stuart Bowen, the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction, chided State for its inability to account for $1.2 billion it had awarded to DynCorp in Iraq.
TPMmuckraker obtained the September 2007 report thanks to a Freedom of Information Act request. We'll have it for you in our Documents Collection shortly. And we'll be presenting you with more from the report throughout the week.
And they won't reimburse us for the missing stuff that we paid for and they 'lost', either.
Bet they expect us to fund the replacement equipment, too.
December 26, 2007 3:39 PM | Reply | Permalink
And they won't reimburse us for the missing stuff that we paid for and they 'lost', either.
Not only that, but they're billing for profit on the loss, too!
December 26, 2007 3:44 PM | Reply | Permalink
Does this have anything to do with Kiara Durkin's murder (by someone on base)? She did accounting in Afghanistan and indicated to friends and family that something fishy was going on. We'd like to know up here...
December 26, 2007 4:18 PM | Reply | Permalink
Why don't Republicans care about wasting taxpayer's money and why the hell aren't Democrats screaming from the rooftops? Spineless fucking bastards.
December 26, 2007 4:42 PM | Reply | Permalink
Is this where I act shocked and indignant that my tax dollars really aren't a force for good?
December 26, 2007 5:16 PM | Reply | Permalink
Hey, what's 91%!! of the stuff between friends?
Boston: probably.
Sounds like a great way to build a private army on the cheap, well cheap for them anyway.
December 26, 2007 5:31 PM | Reply | Permalink
I don't know if this is the sort of accounting error to go shrill about.
And I hate to find myself defending this, but it seems to me that in a military type operation, the misplacement of a few vehicles and radios and a weapon sort of comes with the random explosions and weather. When you're counting pennies for military operations, $28 Million is small change. Relatively speaking, it is.
December 26, 2007 5:37 PM | Reply | Permalink
How much of the "war related material" did Blackwater contractors take home for personal use, or use as JTTF local law enforcement?
Did Blackwater retain some of the equipment for use at their training facility in NC?
- - - - - - - - - - -
As a nit, maybe someone can explain how some of the items "were" found; but then others were "not" found, _emphasis added_:
TPM QUOTE: "OIG [the Office of the Inspector General] found _all_ of the selected WPPS [Worldwide Personnel Protective Service] items on the _property list_ but was unable to locate _some_ of the items (see Table 3), including vehicles, a weapon, generators, computers, radios, and phones, on the Civilian Police and WRAP [Weapons Removal and Abatement Program] lists."
Seems odd that "all" the property -- despite it being in a combat zone, as some losses were expected -- was found; but there were other items missing from the WRAP/CP lists.
- How does some explain 100% compliance for finding _all_ equipment on WPPS list? That seems extraorinary, and frankly, not credible. _Nothing_ was missing?!? Unbelievable.
- Is it possible the "real" losses were higher for WPPS, and the "new list" was adjusted to match what they had on hand?
If they can find all the equipment, why can't they find AlQueda in the US; and if it was "this easy" to have 100%-tracking in a war zone, how does NSA explain -- despite FISA violations -- no evidence supporting any public proseuctions of sleeper cells in the US?
These assertions do not appear consistent with what we're being told about the basis for the FISA violations, or why they can't find Osama Bin Ladin. If they can find the equipment, then why isn't the IG leading the charge to find Osama?
December 26, 2007 7:46 PM | Reply | Permalink
Blackwater won't have to spend a dime for a decade with what they've been able to salt away under Herr Bush.
So what if we won't contract with them for Martial Law in US, hell they'll be out in force no matter what. They've been paid in advance for anything on the drawing pad.
December 27, 2007 12:32 AM | Reply | Permalink
I'd say most of this stuff will end up in the the country Bush is creating for himself in South America.
December 27, 2007 9:40 AM | Reply | Permalink
What a bunch moronic cry babys!! 28Mil is peanuts as compare to what the Clintons ripped-off while "Slick Willy was raising your taxes. Yep bring back the tax and spend Dems you won't have to worry about buying gas, you won't be able to afford a car...amen COMRADE
December 28, 2007 10:11 AM | Reply | Permalink