Pentagon Paid Billions To Contractors Suspended For Fraud

WASHINGTON -- The military paid a total of $285 billion to more than 100 contractors between 2007 and '09, even though those same companies were defrauding taxpayers in the same period, according to a new Defense Department report.

What's perhaps most shocking is that billions of dollars went to contractors who had been either suspended or debarred for misusing taxpayer funds. The Pentagon also spent $270 billion on 91 contractors involved in civil fraud cases that resulted in judgments of more than $1 million. Another $682 million went to 30 contractors convicted of criminal fraud.

The analysis was mandated by a provision that Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) inserted into the defense bill last year. The measure also requested that the Defense Department recommend additional ways to punish the violating contractors, but the Report to Congress on Contractor Fraud concluded, "The department believes that existing remedies with respect to contractor wrongdoing are sufficient."

"It has been said that insanity as doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results," replied the Sanders staff in an analysis of the findings. "It is clear that DOD's current approach is not working, and we need a much more vigorous approach to dealing with contractor fraud."

Sanders underscored the importance of reining in contractor abuse by pointing to the U.S. fiscal situation, saying that the deficit cannot be reduced without looking at the waste, fraud and abuse in the Pentagon's budget.

"With the country running a $14 trillion national debt, my goal is to provide as much transparency as possible about what is happening with taxpayer money," he said. "The sad truth is that virtually all of the major defense contractors in this country for years have been engaged in systemic fraudulent behavior, while receiving hundreds of billions of dollars of taxpayer money."

On Monday, Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) pressed the Joint Chiefs of Staff to get the military's books in order, saying he would "continue to push for a budget freeze of all base budget non-military personnel accounts at the Defense Department until it complies with the law regarding auditable financial statements."

Comments

[spytheweb]

05:33 PM on 02/06/2011

And they want to cut medicare and social security so they can keep on paying war contractors. No wonder the wars have been going on for 10 years, they have a good thing going and they support congressman who vote to keep the wars going.

[brucearnold]

12:28 PM on 02/06/2011

Top Pentagon Military Officers are also Top Lockheed Martin Salesmen

Not sated after sacking the U.S. Treasury, like locusts our Military Industrial Complex is swarming around the globe seeking new sources of sustinance. In the photo linked below we see U.S. Air Force Chief of Staff General Norton Schwartz presenting a model of the C-130J-30 Super Hercules to Indian Defense Minister A.K. Antony at a ceremony at the Air Force Station at Hindon near New Delhi, India on Saturday (5 February 2011) to mark the induction of the first of six Lockheed Martin C-130J airplanes purchased for the Indian Air Force.

U.S. total debt $55.6 trillion, U.S. federal debt $14.1 trillion, U.S. federal deficit $1.5 trillion, U.S. dollar rapidly losing world reserve currency status, as U.S. politicians bought and paid for by multinational corporations (legalized by Citizens United vs. FEC) cut education, close schools, convert asphalt roads to gravel and accelerate America's descent into oblivion so they can pay Lockheed Martin and other greed- and graft-infested government contractors billions for Rube Goldberg defense systems and myriad non-defense boondoggles as unnecessary, unaffordable and unjustifiable as our unending wars for oil and profit. And with the open support of Pentagon top brass, the debt for death and destruction will grow to plague nations around the world:

http://watchingfrogsboil.com/top-pentagon-military-officers-are-also-top-l

[esquilax]

09:22 AM on 02/04/2011

The heavy hand of the law plus scorn for the weak unemployed that might need a boost from welfare, while the rapacious war contractors get continued funding until they can creatively arrange their books.

[vippy]

06:29 AM on 02/04/2011

And no one will go to jail.  Why even waste the paper to print this?

[SocialistBoy]

01:41 AM on 02/04/2011

Previous record:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3kpWqdPMjmo

[drwtsn]

10:31 PM on 02/03/2011

'On Monday, Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) pressed the Joint Chiefs of Staff to get the military's books in order, saying he would "continue to push for a budget freeze of all base budget non-military personnel accounts at the Defense Department until it complies with the law regarding auditable financial statements."'

What does this mean? It sounds like he's saying that those who are refusing to obey the law, will continue to get their normal (probably inflated) salaries, plus any kickbacks they can get from the contractors they're protecting, but (like 90% of the civilian middle class) won't get any raises. What ever happened to the idea of throwing lawbreakers into jail?

[duxguts]

10:27 PM on 02/03/2011

It's just one big criminal enterprise.

[SocialistBoy]

01:37 AM on 02/04/2011

Have no fear-Issa's here, or maybe!?

[Eileen Left]

10:26 PM on 02/03/2011

It would be nice if they held these guys to the same standards they did ACORN!

[deadfed]

09:43 PM on 02/03/2011

Unfortunately, we don't have two parties in D.C., just one big one with two branches where they both endorse massive military spending and endless immoral wars...all the while pointing at the other side, saying they are responsible for the mess...please don't believe by voting republican or democrat, the problems in D.C. will be fixed...it's the entire D.C. framework that needs changing...don't you agree?

http://independentviewpoint.com/
(blogger)

[Dave Thinkster Paulson]

10:21 PM on 02/03/2011

I'll not argue with what you're saying, but I do want to add that the situation is much more complex than the two parties both supporting continued MIC spending. The people may want defense spending cut in general terms, but the fact is that, like the dirty energy industry in America, far too many people depend on the MIC for their livelihoods.

Just look at recent cuts attempted by the defense department for the second engine for the F-35 or the EFV. The cuts were blocked by bipartisan efforts in the districts where the manufacturers were located, not because the programs make sense, but because they mean jobs back home.

If we're ever to move forward with MIC cuts, we need to follow a path that will replace related jobs with those in constructive industries.

[1776 or 1984]

09:25 PM on 02/03/2011

The fallen Wall left MIC without a pretense -- 9 1 1 was needed.

Quashed 9 1 1 Commission testimony. Leaked on cryptome (wiki/eak'­s predecesso­r). Published yesterday on boilingfro­gspost.com by a former Bureau translator­.

==========­==========­========

F B I File Name: “Kamikaze Pilots”

"In the early 90s the Bureau hired an Iranian man as an informant. Over time this informant, proved to be extremely reliable, and his informatio­n was found to be trustworth­y.

He had been the head of Iran’s counterint­elligence unit during the Shah’s regime. His area of operations involved Iran, Afghanista­n, Pakistan, India, Sistan and Baluchista­n.

Bureau agents met him almost monthly to obtain intelligen­ce.

In April, 2001, the informant said:

‘Listen, I was recently contacted by two extremely reliable and long-term sources-ne­ither one Iranian; one in Afghanista­n; the other in Pakistan’s border region with Afghanista­n.'

‘According to my guys, Bin Laden’s group is planning a massive terr0rist a//ack in the United States. The order has been issued. They will use airplanes to carry out the a//acks. They are here in the U.S.; and I believe some in US government already know about all of this. They think within the next two or three months. I can vouch for my sources; their reliabilit­y.’

June 2001:
‘Did you report it to your bosses?’

One of them said: ‘Yes; we submitted it to the top guy.’ "

[Boomer946]

08:43 PM on 02/03/2011

Since WWII Defense spending has become the graveyard of many a well-intentioned politican. The sheer size of the dollars spent in relation to our Federal budget and GDP has created the perfect storm for government waste, mismanagement, fraud, payoffs and downright theft. Even though for the past 65 years we have heard story after story of overcharges for military equipment, substandard weapons systems provided at exorbitant cost, defective spare parts of which too many are consigned to a warehouse where they are lost and never even used, flag military officers retiring and going directly to work for the defense contractors they previously approved purchases from, senators and congressmen earmarking military contracts to be fulfilled within their home states, oversized campaign contributions from said defense contractors to elected officials whose direct responsibility is to control defense spending and so forth. Unraveling this mess is like trying to trace a single spaghetti strand in a large bowl without actually touching any of the spaghetti. Anyone who has tried to attack this situation has found the defense industry has thousands of protectors with vested interests in maintaining the status quo. At the very least those protectors brand the honest broker as a dove who would weaken America. At the extreme they totally destroy the individual by any means necessary. Until America stops believing we have a right to police the world and punish anyone we want, we are doomed to support this bloated monster called defence spending.

[ThankGodhesgone]

08:36 PM on 02/03/2011

OK Military spending is no longer off the table. I'm sure this is just the tip of the iceberg.

Congress should subpoena Blackwater, KBR and Haliburton to find out where all of the money that they received actually went.

[drwtsn]

10:35 PM on 02/03/2011

"OK Military spending is no longer off the table."

I'm not holding my breath.

[Jefferson Vickers]

08:12 PM on 02/03/2011

Now here is the congress cutting party bring a big knife

[ThePeacemakers]

06:55 PM on 02/03/2011

And all that money is on top of what's dished out to that fraud named Karzai.

[javajava]

06:17 PM on 02/03/2011

It wasn't fraud against the government, the government is complicit. The line between Defense CEO's and Washington policy maker hasn't existed since Eisenhower warned of the "Military Industrial Complex" in the 50's, at least. Why do us suppose only minimal penalties are levied? For those miscreants fines are just the cost of business.