Team Infidel
Forum Spin Doctor
CNN
April 20, 2008
Lou Dobbs This Week (CNN), 7:00 PM
LOU DOBBS: Tonight, there are new concerns the Pentagon is wasting billions of dollars on expensive and unnecessary private contractors. Congressional investigators are also concerned about potential conflicts of interest.
Barbara Starr has our report from the Pentagon.
BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: In Iraq, contractors keep the troops drive fuel convoys and analyze intelligence about insurgents.
But investigators at the Government Accountability Office as well as lawmakers, warn the Defense Department is now so overrun with contractors, there is a growing risk taxpayers are getting ripped off because nobody really knows how much contractors are doing. At the Army's own contracting office, the GAO found 40 percent of the employees were contractors themselves overseeing other contractors.
Peter Singer has written extensively on military contractors.
PETER SINGER, BROOKINGS INSTITUTION: We, so far, have hired contractors in any situation where they can do the job. We haven't stepped back and said, "Is this something they should be doing?"
STARR: These are the top Pentagon contractors. Together, they do as much as $130 billion a year in business and it doesn't include $47 billion the U.S. is spending to rebuild Iraq.
Senator Joe Lieberman warned: "The government might not even know when the self-interests of contractors are pitted against the interests of the American taxpayer."
In the last month alone, the GAO has had three separate reviews of conflicts of interest in the defense industry. In one report, the GAO found that in 15 of 21 Pentagon offices, contractors outnumbered federal employees and made up as much as 80 percent of the workforce.
Analysts say military contractors are performing financial oversight of other contractors and often making the best decisions for themselves and not for taxpayers.
SINGER: The concern is that we're locking ourselves into a cycle because of these issues of competition, of unintended consequences where we get wrapped up in the circle of "can't win with them, can't go to war without them."
STARR: DOD officials say there's so much pressure to keep the government small, they have to really on outside contractors. A retired Army major for example can make as much as $200,000 a year, as a contractor, a lot more than that Army major is going to be paid to remain on active duty. So, a lot of military people don't mind becoming contractors these days.
Barbara Starr, CNN, the Pentagon.
April 20, 2008
Lou Dobbs This Week (CNN), 7:00 PM
LOU DOBBS: Tonight, there are new concerns the Pentagon is wasting billions of dollars on expensive and unnecessary private contractors. Congressional investigators are also concerned about potential conflicts of interest.
Barbara Starr has our report from the Pentagon.
BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: In Iraq, contractors keep the troops drive fuel convoys and analyze intelligence about insurgents.
But investigators at the Government Accountability Office as well as lawmakers, warn the Defense Department is now so overrun with contractors, there is a growing risk taxpayers are getting ripped off because nobody really knows how much contractors are doing. At the Army's own contracting office, the GAO found 40 percent of the employees were contractors themselves overseeing other contractors.
Peter Singer has written extensively on military contractors.
PETER SINGER, BROOKINGS INSTITUTION: We, so far, have hired contractors in any situation where they can do the job. We haven't stepped back and said, "Is this something they should be doing?"
STARR: These are the top Pentagon contractors. Together, they do as much as $130 billion a year in business and it doesn't include $47 billion the U.S. is spending to rebuild Iraq.
Senator Joe Lieberman warned: "The government might not even know when the self-interests of contractors are pitted against the interests of the American taxpayer."
In the last month alone, the GAO has had three separate reviews of conflicts of interest in the defense industry. In one report, the GAO found that in 15 of 21 Pentagon offices, contractors outnumbered federal employees and made up as much as 80 percent of the workforce.
Analysts say military contractors are performing financial oversight of other contractors and often making the best decisions for themselves and not for taxpayers.
SINGER: The concern is that we're locking ourselves into a cycle because of these issues of competition, of unintended consequences where we get wrapped up in the circle of "can't win with them, can't go to war without them."
STARR: DOD officials say there's so much pressure to keep the government small, they have to really on outside contractors. A retired Army major for example can make as much as $200,000 a year, as a contractor, a lot more than that Army major is going to be paid to remain on active duty. So, a lot of military people don't mind becoming contractors these days.
Barbara Starr, CNN, the Pentagon.