Defense Contract Audit Agency

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Defense Contract Audit Agency

TPM Investigates: Army Tries To Rein In Rampant Afghan Fuel Theft

Susan Crabtree | March 7, 2011, 7:59AM

The U.S. Army is getting rid of its "pen and paper" and "string and stick" method of tracking fuel use in Afghanistan after nearly a decade of mismanagement, theft and fraud resulting in what is likely hundreds of millions if not billions of dollars in lost fuel, some of which is sold on the black market and has ended up in Taliban hands.

The highest levels of the U.S. military have deep concerns about the rampant robbery, and the U.S. Army this week is beginning to implement, base by base in Afghanistan, a computerized accounting system aimed at making it easier to track the disappearing fuel.

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Topics: Army Petroleum Center, Defense Contract Audit Agency, Defense Contractors, Defense Department, Iraq, Iraq Contractors, Iraq Corruption, Iraq War, John McHugh, Private Contractors, War In Afghanistan

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.