Iraq | The Contracting Education Academy

May 4, 2018 By AMK

DoD Sec: Criminal charges likely amid probe into intelligence contract

Defense Secretary James Mattis has told lawmakers it’s probable that federal officials will file criminal charges as part of an ongoing investigation into a series of contracts the Army issued to help establish security forces in Iraq and Afghanistan.

**U.S. Secretary of Defense James N. Mattis**

The contracts were supposed to be used to help those nations build their own intelligence gathering capabilities, but audits thus far have pointed to tens of millions of dollars in potential fraud connected to at least one vendor, including for luxury vehicles and six-figure salaries paid to its employees who performed no discernible work.

The ongoing criminal investigation involves a series of agreements, beginning in 2007, that wound up costing $458 million.

According to an audit the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction published in July, the lion’s share of those funds went to a single subcontractor, New Century Consulting (NCC). But SIGAR concluded that because of poor recordkeeping and a reliance on vendors to grade their own performance, it’s almost impossible to determine whether the contracts’ objectives were ever met.

Keep reading this article at: https://federalnewsradio.com/acquisition/2018/04/mattis-criminal-charges-likely-amid-probe-into-intelligence-contract/

July 8, 2016 By AMK

Don’t learn the wrong lessons from rapid acquisition

Our enthusiasm must be tempered by an understanding of the wartime circumstances that made it work and the downsides that were accepted.

Every time the Marine Corps sent me back to Operation Iraqi Freedom, new and better equipment awaited: radios, armored vehicles, electronic jammers to foil roadside bombs. It was clear that the rapid acquisition policies created or updated for the Iraq and Afghanistan wars were sending high-performing, technical systems to the battlefield much faster than conventional acquisition could. They helped me do my infantryman’s job better, and helped our force adapt to evolving threats in months rather than years or decades.

Sensibly, policymakers are trying to figure out how rapid acquisition ideas could help the conventional acquisition system perform better. Early this year, the Pentagon enshrined rapid acquisition by including a dedicated section on it in the latest regulations governing acquisition. The Air Force recently announced that it is procuring its new B-21 bomber through its rapid capabilities office, and the Navy is setting up a similar office to speed up acquisitions.

Keep reading this article at: http://www.defenseone.com/ideas/2016/06/dont-learn-wrong-lessons-rapid-acquisition/129332

January 11, 2016 By AMK

Former contracting official gets 30 months in prison for Iraq contract bribes

A former U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) contracting official was sentenced on Friday (January 8, 2016) to 30 months in prison for his role in a bribery scheme involving U.S. government contracts in Iraq.

James Edward Addas, 55, of Stafford, Virginia, previously pleaded guilty to charges of bribery and tax evasion. Senior U.S. District Judge Claude M. Hilton of the Eastern District of Virginia handed down Addas’ sentence today.

According to admissions made in the plea agreement, in August 2004, Addas was a contracting official at the Iraq/Afghanistan Joint Contracting Command in the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad when the owner and CEO of a contracting company based in Jordan offered to pay him a total of $1 million in return for assistance in obtaining U.S. government contracts for major electrical construction projects and related services in Iraq.

The contractor made an initial cash payment of $50,000 in a paper sack, which was handed to Addas inside the “Green Zone” of the U.S. Embassy compound. With Addas’ assistance, the contractor’s companies subsequently received at least 15 contracts, with a total value of more than $28 million awarded to the companies. In addition to the initial payment, the contractor later sent funds to Addas via wire transfers that totaled more than $455,000 and paid for other items valued at more than $70,000. Addas did not declare any of this income on his filed federal tax returns.

Source: http://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/former-contracting-official-sentenced-30-months-bribery-relation-us-government-contracts-iraq

December 15, 2015 By AMK

Military contractor sentenced to prison for bribery during Iraq war

The former president of a defense contractor providing services to the U.S. military in Iraq has been sentenced to 12 months and one day in prison for his role in a scheme to pay more than $1.2 million in bribes to U.S. Army contracting personnel in exchange for being awarded lucrative defense contracts.

Earlier this month, U.S. District Judge Joel H. Slomsky in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania sentenced Justin W. Lee, 37, of Philadelphia, the former president of Lee Dynamics International (LDI), who pleaded guilty in July 2011 to one count of conspiracy to commit bribery and four substantive counts of bribery.

In connection with his guilty plea, Lee admitted that as the president of LDI and previously as an officer of American Logistics Services (ALS), a Kuwaiti company providing supplies to the U.S. military in Iraq, he paid multiple bribes in the form of cash, airline tickets, trips and hotel stays, among other things, to military contracting personnel in exchange for their agreement to take official action to award lucrative contracts to both LDI and ALS.

Lee’s father and co-defendant, George Lee, who was the CEO of both companies, was earlier sentenced to 54 months in prison for one count of bribery.

This marks the end of a long-running investigation, which began in 2006, that led to the conviction of seven other defendants, including several high-ranking contracting officers.

The U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Command, the Defense Criminal Investigative Service, and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement investigated the case. The Office of the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction, the FBI, and the Internal Revenue Service contributed to the investigation. The Justice Department’s Criminal Division’s Public Integrity Section and the U.S. Attorney’s Office of the Eastern District of Pennsylvania prosecuted the case. The U.S. Attorney’s Office of the Southern District of California previously provided substantial assistance.

Source: http://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/former-military-contractor-sentenced-12-months-prison-paying-bribes-army-officers-during-iraq

August 9, 2011 By AMK

Contractor in Iraq disputes inspector general’s allegations of overbilling

The United Arab Emirates-based Anham LLC has issued a statement denying charges made Saturday by the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction that the contractor had marked up the cost of parts by as much as 12,000 percent.

“These conclusions are false,” the company said through a publicity agent. “In fact, the company saved the U.S. government and the U.S. taxpayers nearly $153 million dollars through its performance of the contract.”

SIGIR, in its quarterly report, summarized an audit that found that, due to weak oversight, the Defense Department was billed $900 for a control switch valued at $7.05 (a 12,666 percent increase) and $80 for a small segment of drainpipe valued at $1.41 (a 5,574 percent increase), among other items.

In rebuttal, the company said: “Every purchase by every subcontractor was the result of a competitive bidding process where the lowest price subcontractor was selected, and not a single screw or nail was purchased without prior, advance approval by the U.S. government after their review of the competitive bidding process amongst potential subcontractors. Full disclosure of the nature of every potential subcontractor was fully disclosed to the U.S. government.”

Anham added that it “takes enormous exception to the SIGIR implications. Its suggestions — based on innuendo rather than hard facts — are not the result of a meaningful ‘audit.’ Anham is continually audited by the Defense Contract Audit Agency and welcomes such true audits.”

Stuart W. Bowen Jr., the IG for Iraq reconstruction, told Government Executive that SIGIR stands by the report. He said neither DCAA nor the Defense Contract Management Agency has performed audits on costs incurred by Anham. “DCAA is years behind in audits,” he said. “But for our audit, these excessive billings would not have been uncovered, possibly for years.” He added that DCAA and DCMA concurred with his conclusions and have agreed to review the company’s contract, which goes back to 2007.

“The one true point Anham makes,” Bowen said, “is that the government didn’t complain about the charges. There was a breakdown in the process of cost review, which wasn’t as strong as it should have been, but that doesn’t render the billings valid.”

— by Charles S. Clark – GovExec.com – August 3, 2011 at http://www.govexec.com/story_page.cfm?articleid=48434&dcn=e_gvet

Defense Secretary James Mattis has told lawmakers it’s probable that federal officials will file criminal charges as part of an ongoing investigation into a series of contracts the Army issued to help establish security forces in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Our enthusiasm must be tempered by an understanding of the wartime circumstances that made it work and the downsides that were accepted.

A former U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) contracting official was sentenced on Friday (January 8, 2016) to 30 months in prison for his role in a bribery scheme involving U.S. government contracts in Iraq.

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