More Republican Corruption Exposed
Federal agents armed with search warrants descended on the California house of Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham yesterday, the latest step in a criminal investigation into his relationship with the owner of a District-based government contracting firm.
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Wade started MZM in 1993, but it did not begin to grow until it was awarded a broadly written contract, called a blanket purchase order, in fall 2002. It did more than $163 million in work for a variety of Pentagon agencies until the Defense Information Systems Agency .cut off new work orders 11 days ago, saying the inspector general's office ruled that the work was not competitively awarded.
Federal procurement records show one of MZM's first contracts was a $140,000 deal to provide office furniture to the Executive Office of President. In 2003, the Pentagon hired the firm to provide linguists in Iraq.(snip)
According to news reports, some former and current MZM employees have complained that they were pressured to contribute to the company's political action committee, which could be illegal. The PAC and MZM employees contributed $50,000 to the 2004 campaign of Rep. Katherine Harris (R-Fla.), according to the Center for Responsive Politics, which monitors campaign spending.
Re: More Republican Corruption Exposed
The level of corruption here is small potatoes compared to what's going on in Iraq. American and Iraqi taxpayers are being bilked out of billions of dollars through contracts handed out to private firms in the country. Here's a summary of some recent audits:
http://www.lrb.co.uk/v27/n13/harr04_.html
Among the highlights: the Halliburton subsidiary Kellogg, Brown & Root (KRB) made dozens of transactions without keeping accounts, and many of the services that were recorded were dubious--e.g., the firm charged the army $88 million for meals that were never served. In the face of criticism, KRB established an in-house unit called the Tiger Team to investigate the company's subcontracting procedures:
"KBR’s Tiger Team stayed at the five-star Kuwait Kempinski Hotel, where its members ran up a bill of more than $1 million. This outraged the army, whose troops were sleeping in tents at a cost of $1.39 a day. The army asked the Tiger Team to move into tents. It refused. As to how the Tiger Team ‘actively researched and analysed the facts’, we have the sworn testimony that a KBR employee gave to Congressman Waxman’s committee: ‘The Tiger Team looked at subcontracts with no invoice and no confirmation that the products contracted for were being used. Instead of investigating further, they would recommend extending the subcontract.’"
Then there's the example of the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA): "An Iraqi hospital administrator told me that, as he was about to sign a contract, the American army officer representing the CPA had crossed out the original price and doubled it. The Iraqi protested that the original price was enough. The American officer explained that the increase (more than $1 million) was his retirement package. Iraqis who were close to the Americans, had access to the Green Zone, or held prominent posts in the new government ministries, were also in a position to benefit enormously. Iraqi businessmen complain endlessly that they had to offer substantial bribes to Iraqi middlemen just to be allowed to bid for CPA contracts. Iraqi ministers’ relatives got top jobs and fat contracts."
Ah, the joys of spreading democracy.