Commission On Wartime Contracting

Highway Robbery! U.S. Losing Hundreds of Millions To Rampant Afghan Fuel Theft

Susan Crabtree | March 3, 2011, 11:55AM

After nearly a decade of mismanagement, theft and fraud, the U.S. military still hasn't found a way to staunch the flow of what is likely hundreds of millions -- if not billions -- of dollars in lost fuel in Afghanistan, some of which is sold on the black market and winds up in Taliban hands, a TPM investigation has found.

With political unrest in the Middle East sending oil over $100 per barrel and Congress more intent than ever at cutting government waste, fraud and abuse in tough budgetary times, the Defense Department is under intense pressure to find a way to monitor and track the flow of fuel in and out of its bases in Afghanistan and Iraq.

The extensive corruption associated with disappearing fuel in Afghanistan provides another illustration of the problems associated with the heavy use of private contractors on the battlefield. Earlier this week, the non-partisan Commission for Wartime Contracting reported that the U.S. government has spent $117 billion on private contractors in Iraq and Afghanistan since 2002, and tens of billions of those dollars have been wasted.

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Topics: Afghanistan Corruption, Commission On Wartime Contracting, Darrell Issa, Gen. James Mattis, House Oversight, House Oversight and Government Reform, House of Representatives , Inspector General Report, Iraq, Iraq Contractors, Iraq Corruption, Iraq War, Jim Moran, Private Contractors, War In Afghanistan, War on Terror

PMA Group

One Down: House Ethics Office Closes Murtha-PMA Probe

Justin Elliott | December 18, 2009, 6:17PM

The Office of Congressional Ethics has ended its investigation of Rep. John Murtha's ties to now-defunct lobbying firm PMA Group, recommending against a further inquiry by the House ethics panel, which is also investigating Murtha.

The development was first reported by Roll Call. We laid out the charges in the PMA matter, including allegations that members of Congress exchanged earmarks for PMA's clients for campaign donations, in this post.

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Topics: House Ethics Committee, Jim Moran, John Murtha, Norm Dicks, Office of Congressional Ethics, PMA, PMA Group