The Defense Department paid $285 billion in two years to about 100 contractors who were defrauding taxpayers between 2007 and 2009. About $15 billion was spent on contractors who at the time were either suspended or debarred for misusing taxpayer funds, according to its audit report released Wednesday.
The report was required in the last defense budget and it’s response back to Congress included:
“The (Defense) Department believes that existing remedies with respect to contractor wrongdoing are sufficient.”
In fairness, Secretary Robert Gates has been addressing that problem but there is no way of knowing until future audits of any improvements.
Defense contractor fraud probably is not a political war between Democrats and Republicans in Congress if $285 billion waste is part of the issue. But cutting spending in the military budget definitely is.
The military is a hands-off special group favored by many Republicans, except for Tea Party darling Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky. Democrats, mostly those who have questioned the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, insist it is prudent to whack waste, fraud and weapons programs even the Pentagon admits don’t work.
According to Amanda Terkel of the Huffington Post, the audit report said 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 report was mandated by a provision inserted in the defense bill last year by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), a strong critic of the Iraq war and does not view Defense as sacrosanct from the budget cutting process.
The HuffPo quotes Sanders:
“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.”
There was no reaction in the report from Pentagon spokesmen but the story filed by Terkel did include:
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.”
Jerry Remmers worked 26 years in the newspaper business. His last 23 years was with the Evening Tribune in San Diego where assignments included reporter, assistant city editor, county and politics editor.