Congressional hearing raises concerns regarding contractors’ accountability

[unhappycamper]

Congressional hearing raises concerns regarding contractors’ accountability
By Leo Shane III, Stars and Stripes
Mideast edition, Wednesday, April 30, 2008

WASHINGTON — Former KBR contractor Linda Warren said during her year in Iraq that she saw co-workers stealing from military supply rooms, abusing Iraqi workers, and falsifying paperwork so the company could collect more government payouts.

“Many times I was ashamed to call myself an American working for Halliburton in Iraq,” she told a congressional committee on Monday. “Our sons and daughters fighting over there deserve better than this.”

The hearing was the 13th before the Senate Democratic Policy Committee in the last four years, featuring dozens of whistle-blowers claiming rampant fraud and abuse among contractors in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Committee chairman Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., said he already has scheduled more hearings in coming weeks to continue to highlight the billions in misspent and wasted government money overseas.

He insists that defense officials have been reluctant to acknowledge the fiscal responsibility and standing Congressional committees have not been able to pursue.


Rest of article at: http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=54431