The Senate Democratic Policy Committee, led by Senator Byron Dorgan (D-SD), is going to hold an oversight hearing on February 14, 2005, on
waste, fraud, and abuse in U.S. government contracting in Iraq. This isn't just about
Halliburton, folks. It's bigger.
I saw the notice about this on the Raw Story website, but I wanted to wait for the announcement to come from Dorgan's office before I posted anything. I also e-mailed the Raw Story editor to make sure I had the right information.
Details are below the fold.
What is noteworthy about this hearing is that three whistleblowers are going to be called; their names will not be revealed until the hearing.
They are whistleblowers from the Coalition Provisional Authority, which has been audited many times.
More details come from the Raw Story:
Democrats are keeping the whistleblowers' names tightly under wraps, hoping to ensure that no one will get cold feet. But they expect the hearings to make quite a splash; two of those speaking are former officials of the Iraqi interim government, led by Paul Bremer.
Those testifying will be "two whistleblowers whose identities are not being revealed until they appear at the hearing. Both are CPA officials who served in Baghdad," a senior Senate aide said on condition of anonymity. "They will talk about waste, fraud and abuse that they saw personally."
Among those also scheduled to appear are Alan Grayson, a lawyer who represents two whistleblowers in a False Claims Act case against CPA contractor Custer Battles. Grayson will detail a series of scandals in which Custer falsely billed the United States for work done in Iraq.
The reason the hearing is being held:
A series of audits of the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) completed over the past seven months have exposed serious failures in the CPA's oversight of Iraq reconstruction and development funds. Most recently, a comprehensive audit by the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction (SIGIR) showed, among other things, that the CPA has lost track of nearly $9 billion in Iraqi oil funds.
These audits indicate that the CPA failed to implement necessary financial controls and procedures for awarding and overseeing both reconstruction contracts and Iraqi oil funds. This atmosphere of lax oversight may have enabled unscrupulous contractors to defraud the CPA. Whistleblowers at this hearing will testify that at least one such contractor, Custer Battles, engaged in a pattern of activities that constituted theft and fraud.
In addition, in another instance of the Bush Administration's failure to pursue rigorous enforcement of contractor abuses, the Department of Justice has declined to join the whistleblowers' pending False Claims Act case against Custer Battles on the grounds that "cheating the Coalition Provision Authority is not the same thing as cheating the U.S. government."
Bremer is not going to testify at the hearing (big surprise), and Wolfowitz may or may not appear. Both were invited.
Now, think about the magnitude of the "fraud and abuse". Only one example was cited, and that was $9 BILLION that the CPA "lost track of".
$9 BILLION.
Sort of leaves me speechless.