GAO plans second probe into KMCC

[unhappycamper]

GAO plans 2nd review of long-overdue, problem-plagued $200M Kaiserslautern Military Community Center


GAO plans second probe into KMCC
By Charlie Reed, Stars and Stripes
European edition, Monday, November 19, 2007


The Government Accountability Office, which issued a scathing report this summer on the massive Kaiserslautern Military Community Center mall/hotel complex, is expected to launch another investigation early next year, according to officials with the congressional agency.

More than 15 times the size of the White House, the 844,000-square-foot center at Ramstein Air Base, Germany, was commissioned by U.S. Air Forces Europe headquarters and is being built by German construction company Landesbetrieb Liegenschafts und Baubetreuung, or LBB. Ground-breaking ceremonies were held in December 2004; it was supposed to have opened more than a year ago.

Not only is it behind schedule, but American and German officials still are unable to determine when the almost $200 million project will be finished.

“The KMCC is clearly a troubled project and there’s no end in sight,” Greg Kutz, GAO director of forensic audits and special investigations, said this week.

The GAO will examine how — or if — the Air Force and LBB have corrected shoddy construction and mismanagement issues, which are responsible for side effects including vandalism and allegations of fraud, said Kutz, who will help lead the latest investigation.

The new probe comes at the urging of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, which held a hearing on the KMCC in June that coincided with the GAO’s initial report, which Kutz co-authored.


rest of article at: http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=50373