Corruption proof vests
Iraq is a place where soldiers fight a war. And it is a place where all sorts of individuals and companies seek opportunities to make a quick profit. The US spend about a billion dollars a day on the war. Imagine the business side of that. How to organize your vendor management in such a way that you get the best of everything to the troops in time, for a reasonable price? A daunting task, especially if you know that there are fraudsters out there that will do anything to sell you the worst stuff at the highest price.
Corruption in Iraq — dubbed the “second insurgency” by the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction (SIGIR) — has been the target of numerous congressional hearings critical of the slow pace of prosecutions. Pentagon auditors have questioned $4 billion in contractors’ bills for work in Iraq in 2007.
This month the presiden of Global-Link Distribution LLC has pleaded guilty in a scheme related to procurement of bullet proof vests.
According to the court documents, Demilta devised a scheme and instructed a co-conspirator to submit sham bids from dormant and/or related companies for the bullet-proof vest contract. The sham bids were submitted with intentionally increased prices so that one company, a Kuwaiti general trading firm, would win the contract at a lower price. The owner of the Kuwaiti general trading firm then authorized (the president of Global-Link) to negotiate and receive all funds related to the contract. “The Department of Justice will prosecute those who corrupt the competitive bidding process and who undermine the military’s efforts to obtain equipment that is critical to protecting lives, such as bullet proof vests,” said Christine A. Varney, Assistant Attorney General in charge of the Department’s Antitrust Division. “The Division will not tolerate anticompetitive schemes that affect the men and women serving in our nation’s armed forces.”The president of Global-Link also admitted to have paid $60,000 to a public official to speed up payments to the company and to influence the awarding of the contract to the company.
In an other case, an Army major pleaded guilty to participating in a bribery while working as an Army contracting officer in Kuwait. According to court documents, he was responsible for awarding contracts for services to be delivered to troops in Iraq, including bottled water. In return for awarding contracts, he admitted to receiving more than $9 million in bribes. Once he agreed to take money in exchange for awarding contracts, he admitted he directed the contractors to pay family members and others in order to conceal the receipt of bribe payments. His wife pleaded guilty to accepting more than $1 million on his behalf, and admitted that she stored the cash in safe deposit boxes at banks in Kuwait and Dubai.
We can all see the difference between defrauding the government on bottled water and bullet proof vests. You know what they say in the armed forces: always remember your weapon was made by the lowest bidder.
http://www.usdoj.gov/opa/pr/2009/May/09-at-514.html
http://chicago.fbi.gov/dojpressrel/pressrel09/cg050409.htm
http://sanantonio.fbi.gov/dojpressrel/pressrel09/sa031909.htm
http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/iraq/2007-08-15-iraqcontracts_N.htm
http://washingtondc.fbi.gov/dojpressrel/pressrel09/wfo040909c.htm
http://www.dodig.mil/IGInformation/Speeches/HOGR%202-12-09.pdf
