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Senator Claire McCaskill
A common theme in almost all stories about the quagmire in Afghanistan is that widespread corruption is crippling the country. For example, Reuters has a fresh story on that topic today:
Afghanistan’s government came under fresh pressure on Thursday to tackle widespread graft after a survey found soaring corruption was giving political strength to Taliban insurgents ahead of a fresh U.S. and NATO war push.
Corruption in the country had more than doubled since 2007 and nine years after the start of the war to oust the Taliban, was now at levels well above fundamentalist rule, costing $1 billion a year in an $11 billion economy.
One in seven Afghans now regularly paid bribes.
But the graft in Afghanistan is not limited to the Afghan government. As Carlotta Gall writes in today’s New York Times, US companies are stealing from Afghan businesses:
A number of Afghan construction companies working on contracts for American and NATO military bases in Afghanistan have accused American middlemen of reneging on payments for supplies and services, and in one case of leaving the country owing Afghan companies hundreds of thousands, even millions, of dollars.
The failure of American companies to pay for contracted work has left hundreds of Afghan workers unpaid in southern Afghanistan, and dozens of factories and small businesses so deep in debt that Afghan and foreign officials fear the fallout will undermine the United States-led counterinsurgency effort to win the support of the Afghan people.
It’s hard to imagine an example of disaster capitalism that is more disgusting. US firms are taking large contracts from ISAF, hiring Afghan businesses as subcontractors and then pocketing the money without paying the Afghans for their work. Gall quotes one ISAF representative on the impact of this practice: "Without being too dramatic, American contractors are contributing to fueling the insurgency".
Why would American companies do this? The easy answer is because the Afghans have no recourse:
“The subcontractors out here are very unlikely to be able to hire an attorney in the U.S., and thus the chances of seeing any payment is really zero,” the ISAF military official said.
Wait. What?
ISAF hires American companies to carry out work. The American companies subcontract to Afghans. The Afghans do the work and the American companies pocket the payment, stiffing the Afghans. And ISAF says the only way the Afghans can get paid is to hire an attorney in the US?
What’s missing in the description above is any understanding of ISAF’s responsibility to enforce the contracts it writes. But accountability was just one of many things discarded when George W. Bush’s Defense Secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, decided that the wars in Iraq and Aghanistan could be fought on the cheap.
Recall that even subcontracted security is a target for graft by US companies.
But not to worry. Senator Claire McCaskill (D-MO), told us back in February in Federal Computer Week that the military learned its lessons about contracting from its bad experience in Iraq:
Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) said today U.S. military forces based in Afghanistan are doing a much better job of tracking contracts and purchases than they did in Iraq.
Military officers and officials from other agencies are coming together regularly to look at their auditing work, McCaskill said. Members of what are considered auditing committees are checking their audits to make sure they were done correctly. The committees are hunting for gaps in auditing oversight, but also avoiding the duplication of each other’s work, she said in a conference call from New Delhi, India.
The article quotes McCaskill admitting that contracting oversight in Iraq "has been essentially nonexistent" so much that "It was the wild west".
As for Afghanistan, the article then begins to walk back from its opening claim that the military is doing "a much better job of tracking contracts", attributing to McCaskill an observation that the military "improved slightly regarding audits and contracting oversight". Then we have this at the close of the article:
“I don’t think they’ve got a handle on it, but I think they’re working to get a handle on it,” said McCaskill, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee and chairwoman of the Senate Homeland Security Contracting Oversight Subcommittee.
Yeah, "working to get a handle on it" is considerably short of a "much better job" if you ask me. Great job of oversight you’re doing there, Senator.
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About The Seminal
Thanks, Jim. U.S. behavior in Afghanistan is one giant clusterfuck. Milo Minderbender is alive and well, and he’s ripping off Afghanistan companies and U.S. taxpayers, for a double bonanza in the name of Free Enterprise!
I wonder how many of these wonderful, essential contractors are still getting contracts.
Any guesses? I have a few.
At my mom’s family reunion two weeks ago, I thought I could decipher through the thick southern Appalachian speech the declaration that all incumbents will be voted out in November, regardless of party, policy or voting record.
Lookout.
That’s the thing. All ISAF has to do is kick out one contractor for this shit and the others will take notice immediately.
A Tweet from Danielle Brian, Executive Director of Project on Government Oversight (they were the link on graft by contractor security firms in the post):
And in other related “nooz” at 6 tonight: dog bites man.
I mean, seriously: is anyone surprised? Pallets of cash shipped over to Iraq and no one knows what happened to it.
It’s all about the money… and who can rip it off the best/fastest/the most.
Support the Troops?? Get real. What a crock. And so, let’s all go whine and cry about how poor people are ripping us all through our taxes. Yeah, right: great distraction.
Thanks for the post. Totally unsurprised and expect absoeffenlutely nothing to be done about it. Our “gov’t” is as corrupt as Russia’s.
That’s some decent baksheesh.
War is an opportunity for the few, the rich, the rat bastards.
After reading about the money that special interst groups are going to donate to repug campaigns this year I really got sick. I just don’t see how Sen. McCaskill can keep taking the pounding from the extreme radical right which has so much money and hates democracy. The lang. of the repugs is just so anti-democracy. In the WAPO Plum line today there is an shortened article about John Boehner’s America:The one he yearns for. Boehner was born in 1949. In 1956, the Party Platform called for a “a broadened coverage in unemp ins”, hlth protection for all and vigorous support of the UN. In 1960, the GOP hailed the success of raising the minimum wage-the platform included a pledge to expand SS coverage….and a robust fed intervention to preserve the environment. It was Johnson’s war on poverty and the civil rights act that gave the South to the repugs: with Reagan found their radical reverse from progressive programs to begin conjuring up the anger, hatred and demonization of the poor in order to justify their inhumane and anti democratic behavior. Every time a repug opens their mouths and accuses the dems of something, it means they are doing it themselves and need cover. So blame the dems. In 1913 Woodrow Wilson said: “If there are men in this country big enough to own the government of the United States they are going to own it.” We know there are such men today who will try their best to own it according to economist Paul Krugman.
Ah, but of course we want “our” share of those mineral riches, too.
POGO is the shizz !
and I’m sorry to focus on a personality here – but there is no more reliable WH stooge than Senator McCaskill, she’s giving all the Chicago pivot queens a run for their money, look out Dick and Jan
Our government is so corrupt. Did anyone think the companies they hire would be any different?
What’s with the pretty picture of Senator Claire McCaskill?
If picture is meant to raise Claire one level above stupid, you failed.
Claire sees things that aren’t there all the time.
Last night on Rachel Maddow from Afghanistan they were showing multi million dollar houses being built there on streets made of dirt and between lots full of garbage.
“Government is just the entertainment division of the Military Industrial Complex”
Frank Zappa
I don’t know, I just felt it sort of fit this post….
Yep,well said.
Why would anyone think that somehow Americans companies are virtuous.
The only thing we seem to do well is steal ordinary peoples money…..wall st banks ,Pharma companies & insurance industry…….
the sooner people realize that the congress regardless of leadership is a major part of the corruption we are doomed.
Why were these houses being built?
Because various warlords, drug traffickers, and corrupt officials wanted a nice place to stay when they were in town.
It’s not just profound it is the way it needs to be to allow maximun theft! Look at it as it really is! You can’t have theft to the amount this is unless the Fox is in charge of the Hen house.
Marty Didier
Northbrook IL
This information is nothing new!
Some woman exposed this corruption years ago. I do not recall who she was, but she hit the nail on the head with her article.
Afghanistan is so corrupt, Pakistan is so corrupt, and American contractors are so corrupt that this conflict could go on forever. That is what the warmongering war-profiteers want!
would’nt you like to know where the 12 billion cash went?. Twelve billion cash. in bales. I just can’t imagine.
But Not just American operations that are corrupt. how bout the Canadian Red Cross? recently:
OTTAWA — The Canadian Red Cross is dismissing calls for an investigation into allegations of human trafficking at some of its recent post-tsunami reconstruction projects in Indonesia.
Although it has acknowledged dozens of workers were mistreated in some housing projects, the humanitarian organization said it has resolved concerns about the use of more than $100 million in donations from Canadians and subsidies from the federal government.
The Canadian Red Cross has acknowledged that some of its contractors in Indonesia had mistreated workers, withholding payments and subjecting them to poor conditions without access to clean water, inadequate bathing facilities and in some cases, lodging that leaked in the rain.
But while the organization said these were isolated incidents, Virgil Grandfield, who was assigned by the Canadian Red Cross in one of the affected areas in the Aceh province of Indonesia, said he still believed hundreds of workers used at Canadian-funded construction sites and in other regions were taken hundreds of kilometres from their homes and are still waiting for payment.
Grandfield said that while hundreds of unpaid workers were able to leave the sites, many more had to stay and work for almost no pay because they had no way to leave.
“That is how human trafficking works,” he said.
“Humanitarian professionals should know that in human trafficking schemes, falsely recruited workers are usually kept to work involuntarily by geographic isolation, non-payment and deception. Most workers with no money and very little food could not face the 2,000 kilometre journey home. “
You might be thinking about Bunnatine Greenhouse. A former Chief Contracting Officer who exposed contracting frauds and was fired/retired.
I recall about $9 billion going on jets to Iraq and the pallets of cash being treated with little security – indeed staff in Iraq had photos of themselves playing football throwing the wrapped currency.
I do not recall anything about where the money went post the “accounting is hard during a war” comment by Rumsfeld – indeed I do not recall a CBO report on those funds.
So it appears we made 8 persons billionaires, and put the remainder in the Iraq Central Bank/largest bank where they had the “amazing break in”.
Now in Afghanistan we fly money in for the Central Bank – and the NYT reports a jet is fueled up to transport that currency to the EU – and the US knows about this and can do nothing because the Afghan government controls the currency now.
Meanwhile the rest of the media does NOT jump on the NYT report – and I wonder why (not really).
And let me add that “working to get a handle on it” (after eight years) is D.C. code for “I have my head up my ass and haven’t the faintest idea what I’m talking about, but I know you’ll write down anything I say and never really hold me responsible for any of it”.
See, it’s just easier to say in D.C. lingo!