Posted by Mike
on November 3, 2009, 11:42 am
Set against the stupid debate about how many more troops to send to kill and die, don't know whetehr to laugh or cry at this:
http://rawstory.com/2009/11/commission-we-know-contractors-employs-iraq-afghanistan/
The US government has no precise figure for how many contractors are employed in Iraq and Afghanistan, inviting the risk of fraud and security threats, a US commission warned on Monday.
"How can contractors be properly managed if we aren't sure how many there are, where they are and what are they doing?"
The Pentagon had a data base for contractors but it did not take into account the large number of foreign nationals performing contract work, while a data base kept by US Central Command did not count employees with the State Department, he said.
The Pentagon in April counted about 160,000 contractors mainly in Iraq, Afghanistan and Kuwait but Central Command recorded more than 242,000 contractors a month earlier, he said.
The lack of precise numbers for contractors "permits and invites waste, fraud and abuse of taxpayer money and undermines the achievement of US mission objectives," he said. The problem also raises concerns over security, he said.
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