[PDF] Transforming Wartime Contracting eBook

Author : Commission on Wartime Contracting in Iraq and Afghanistan (U.S.)
Publisher :
Page : 248 pages
File Size : 20,30 MB
Release : 2011
Category : Defense contracts
ISBN :

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Over the past decade, America's military and federal-civilian employees, as well as contractors, have performed vital and dangerous tasks in Iraq and Afghanistan. Contractors' support however, has been unnecessarily costly, and has been plagued by high levels of waste and fraud. The United States will not be able to conduct large or sustained contingency operations without heavy contractor support. Avoiding a repetition of the waste, fraud, and abuse seen in Iraq and Afghanistan requires either a great increase in agencies' ability to perform core tasks and to manage contracts effectively, or a disciplined reconsideration of plans and commitments that would require intense use of contractors. Failure by Congress and the Executive Branch to heed a decade's lessons on contingency contracting from Iraq and Afghanistan will not avert new contingencies. It will only ensure that additional billions of dollars of waste will occur and that U.S. objectives and standing in the world will suffer. Worse still, lives will be lost because of waste and mismanagement.

Author : Christopher Kinsey
Publisher : Stanford University Press
Page : 397 pages
File Size : 50,28 MB
Release : 2012-07-25
Category : Political Science
ISBN : 0804782938

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The U.S. military is no longer based on a Cold War self-sufficient model. Today's armed forces are a third smaller than they were during the Cold War, and yet are expected to do as much if not more than they did during those years. As a result, a transformation is occurring in the way the U.S. government expects the military to conduct operations—with much of that transformation contingent on the use of contractors to deliver support to the armed forces during military campaigns and afterwards. Contractors and War explains the reasons behind this transformation and evaluates how the private sector will shape and be shaped by future operations. The authors are drawn from a range of policy, legislative, military, legal, and academic backgrounds. They lay out the philosophical arguments supporting the use of contractors in combat and stabilization operations and present a spectrum of arguments that support and criticize emergent private sector roles. The book provides fresh policy guidance to those who will research, direct, and carry out future deployments.

Author : United States. Congress
Publisher : Createspace Independent Publishing Platform
Page : 436 pages
File Size : 29,39 MB
Release : 2017-12-11
Category :
ISBN : 9781981610815

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Transforming wartime contracting : recommendations of the Commission on Wartime Contracting : hearing before the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, United States Senate, One Hundred Twelfth Congress, first session, September 21, 2011.

Author : Charles M. Smith (CPCM.)
Publisher : Algora Publishing
Page : 301 pages
File Size : 38,95 MB
Release : 2012
Category : History
ISBN : 0875869270

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WASHINGTON — The Army official who managed the Pentagon's largest contract in Iraq says he was ousted from his job when he refused to approve paying more than $1 billion in questionable charges to KBR..." (James Risen, New York Times, June 17, 2008) This book by that very Army official provides an eye-opening firsthand account of how the US Government hands over your tax dollars to support contractors like KBR and Halliburton, rather than supporting the troops. This authoritative and well-documented record of the LOGCAP contract in Iraq and Afghanistan is at the same time a study of US participation in Iraq and Afghanistan as well as the workings of government agencies and Congress. The first chapter sets the scene, briefly narrating the author's work on behalf of US military efforts, especially in Iraq. Subsequent chapters illustrate specific issues in contractor relations that resulted in unsafe conditions for the troops and blew millions of taxpayer dollars. Loyal and hard-working government officials and employees who tried to keep things on track were turned away and those who sought to rein in the free-for-all were sacked. The author reveals problems with KBR's provision of transportation, electricity, food and water. Other chapters are more analytic and evaluate Army logistics, Congressional oversight and the question of whether letting contracts for this kind of support is appropriate at all--the kind of problems that concern military policy leaders, defense analysts, public policy analysts and scholars in these areas, as well as the citizens in whose name this is all done.

Author : Us Commission on Wartime Contracting
Publisher : CreateSpace
Page : 70 pages
File Size : 47,18 MB
Release : 2012-04-26
Category : Business & Economics
ISBN : 9781475254877

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Congress established the Commission on Wartime Contracting to reduce the extensive amount of waste, fraud, and abuse in Iraq and Afghanistan and in future contingency operations. Contract waste, fraud, and abuse take many forms: - An ill-conceived project, no matter how well-managed, is wasteful if it does not fit the cultural, political, and economic mores of the society it is meant to serve, or if it cannot be supported and maintained. - Poor planning and oversight by the U.S. government, as well as poor performance on the part of contractors, have costly outcomes: time and money misspent are lost for other purposes. - Criminal behavior and blatant corruption sap dollars from what could otherwise be successful project outcomes and, more disturbingly, contribute to a climate in which huge amounts of waste are accepted as the norm. Although no estimate captures the full cost associated with this waste, fraud, and abuse, it clearly runs into the billions of dollars. Yet, for many years the government has abdicated its contracting responsibilities-too often using contractors as the default mechanism, driven by considerations other than whether they provide the best solution, and without consideration for the resources needed to manage them. That is how contractors have come to account for fully half the United States presence in contingency operations. Regrettably, our government has been slow to make the changes that could limit the dollars wasted. After extensive deliberation, the Commission has determined that only sweeping reforms can bring about the changes that must be made. We must expand responsibility and accountability for contracting outcomes. The business of contracting must be treated commensurately with its cost in taxpayer dollars and with its mission-critical role in contingency operations. We issue this second interim report, At what risk?, in the hope that the Congress and the Administration will adopt our recommendations.