US moves against alleged fraud among battlefield contractors

Following new allegations about the scale of potential fraud and corruption in Iraq and Afghanistan, US legislators are pressing ahead with legislation that would tighten oversight of battlefield contractors.

The Senate approved measures on 20 September introduced by Democratic Senator Claire McCaskill of Missouri that aim to crack down on alleged fraud, waste and abuse in defence contracting in Iraq and Afghanistan. The amendments - added to the Fiscal Year 2008 defence authorisation bill - would prompt independent reviews of major logistics support contracts; tighten restrictions on emergency contracting practices; and provide better training to military personnel who work with private contractors but who are not part of the regular acquisition community. The measures would also expand the writ of the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction.

"We are spending billions of dollars in Iraq and Afghanistan each month and we need to make sure every penny is being used wisely," McCaskill said in a statement. "These amendments will bring greater scrutiny to defence contracting in a way that will help prevent abuse as we move forward."

Political momentum has been growing for greater oversight of wartime contracting. During a 20 September congressional hearing, Thomas Gimble, principal deputy inspector general for the US Department of Defense (DoD), revealed that investigators were probing contracts worth a total of USD6 billion for alleged criminal irregularity. While that figure represents only a fraction of the USD550 billion that the department has received since 2001 to fund military operations overseas, defence officials conceded that in many cases oversight of war-zone contracting had been poor. 155 of 334 words