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Defense Contractors: September 2009

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Defense Contractors

Oversight Reports Slam Dysfunction At Defense Contract Audit Agency

Justin Elliott | September 30, 2009, 10:08AM

Delta IV Medium rocket

The office in charge of auditing Pentagon contracts is beset by incompetence and possibly malfeasance that has allowed big defense contractors to line their pockets at taxpayer expense, according to two new government oversight reports.

Last year, the obscure but important arm of the federal government called the Defense Contract Audit Agency looked at $501 billion in contractor costs.

Which is, as it sounds, a pretty important job. But the DCAA isn't doing the job so well, concludes the Defense Department's Inspector General, whose 96-page report on the DCAA was unsealed yesterday and can be read here (.pdf), and the Government Accountability Office, whose own damning report is here.

Let's look at a case that shows how auditor malfeasance can line the pockets of big defense contractors with millions in taxpayer dollars.