It also concludes that the Army failed to properly oversee KBR’s work, allowing the danger to U.S. troops from KBR’s work to continue and persist not only on Ryan Maseth’s base, but throughout Iraq (PDF) and Afghanistan (PDF).
Up to now, KBR has denied any link between its work and the electric shocks and electrocutions of soldiers on U.S. Army bases in Iraq. This report should make it impossible for the company to continue to deny the facts.
As outlined in the Inspector General’s report, the conduct of both KBR and the Army is simply unacceptable. Both need to stop making excuses and start taking steps to protect U.S troops and taxpayers.
Staff Sgt. Maseth was a 24-year-old Green Beret from Pennsylvania. In January 2008, he was electrocuted as he showered in his barracks on a U.S. military base in Iraq. The Army first told his family that he died because he took an electrical appliance into the shower. His courageous mother, Cheryl Harris, rejected that explanation.
Mrs. Harris appeared at a Senate Democratic Policy Committee hearing I chaired on July 11, 2008 as we investigated shoddy electrical work by KBR in Iraq and Afghanistan. We also heard from whistleblowers that day, some of them former KBR employees who had first-hand, on site experience with KBR’s electrical work. We found evidence of widespread failure by KBR to take even the most basic steps to ensure its electrical work was safe. Whistleblowers told us KBR routinely hired non-electricians to perform electrical work, and that non-electricians were routinely hired to supervise their work.
They told us that even the most basic work – proper grounding, for example – was either not done at all, or performed so haphazardly it was a clear, obvious and immediate danger.
Meanwhile, KBR continued to deny any connection between its electrical work and the electrical shocks and even deaths in Iraq and Afghanistan. The Army continued to churn out excuses like the one initially given to Cheryl Harris.
Following the hearing, I immediately asked for a complete review of KBR’s electrical work in Iraq and Afghanistan and for a new investigation into Staff Sgt. Maseth’s death.
The results are now in.
The Inspector General concludes that KBR failed to ground equipment which contributed to the electrocution death of Staff Sgt. Maseth. The IG also found that KBR failed to: employ personnel with adequate electrical training and expertise; report improperly grounded equipment the company had identified; and perform its work in the ‘skillful and workmanlike manner’ required by the contract.
The IG also reports that prior to Sgt. Maseth’s electrocution, there were 230 incidents of electric shocks in KBR-maintained facilities in Iraq from September 2006 to July 2008 – far more than should have necessary to alert KBR or Army officials that there was a major problem that needed urgent attention.
According to the IG, KBR’s shoddy and dangerous electrical work is a widespread, not isolated, problem in both Iraq and Afghanistan. The Inspector General reports that so far, that review has found more than 53,000 sites at U.S. Army bases in those countries that needed urgent, major repairs.
It is outrageous that U.S. troops have been injured and died because KBR, the largest military contractor in Iraq and Afghanistan, performed its work in a reckless manner.
It is astounding that KBR continues to receive contracts for work in Iraq. Its many failures are now obvious, massive and cover a wide-range of activities.
It is unbelievable that KBR actually received an $83.4 million bonus for its contract for electrical work in Iraq, even though according to the Department of Defense’sInspector General, KBR’s work endangered and even killed U.S. troops.
I am renewing my call for the Pentagon to recoup the $83.4 million in bonuses paid to KBR under LOGCAP III Task Order 139 for its shoddy electrical work.
I also want to know what the Army is doing to improve its selection and oversight of military contractors in Iraq and Afghanistan. The safety and very lives of U.S. soldiers depends on prompt, corrective action.
Related posts:
- Electrocution Deaths: DOD IG Finds Multiple Failures by KBR, Military
- More Troops for Afghanistan? Faster Withdrawal from Iraq?
- DPC to Continue Drive for Oversight, Accountability for Iraq and Afghanistan Contractors
- McChrystal Wants More Troops, More Billions for War in Afghanistan
- McChrystal’s Afghanistan Report Leaked; Attempts to Push Obama to Escalate War
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Thanks so much for this update, Sen. Dorgan — and for staying on these issues for the last few years.
There are recommendations in the various IG reports about things the DOD can do internally to hold KBR accountable. Will there be hearings upcoming on that to ensure that these are followed through by the Pentagon?
it’s also confirmed kbr lost 9 billion of our dollars, built schools that melt in the rain, served cotaminated food and provided tainted water
it’s also confirmed that since they were given no-bid, profit guaranteed contracts they provided goods and services as expensively as possible
it’s also confirmed cheney’s worth increased multitudes because of these contracts
Welcome Senator, and thank you.
Can we please stop awarding more contracts to KBR?
How come KBR still gets federal contracts? Someone must be held accountable. I have 2 nephews currently serving overseas, Afghanistan and Kuwait, and the last thing that should ever happen is the kind of thing that has happened to the soldiers mentioned above. There would be lawsuits if this was in the States.
Did not Clinton issue an EO stating that the US Govt would not hire contractors who had bilked us before or were involved in negligent work? Can’t we do that again? That EO was one of the first for Bush to strike out when he became president.
I believe I heard on Thom Hartman’s show yesterday that that EO was overturned by the courts.
Thank you, Senator Dorgan, for this much needed update on this disgraceful situation. Please continue to shine light on the KBR fiasco. We cannot let it happen any longer.
They just did that in Afghanistan, actually — KBR lost a huge contract there recently. DOD awarded it to two smaller companies instead, as I recall.
Senator Dorgan intends to continue to follow this issue and monitor DOD’s action in response to these findings and the recommendations.
Follow up hearings are certainly possible. For example, he has a hearing scheduled for Monday, August 3 to follow up on another issue revealed at a Democratic Policy Committee hearing last year — the exposure of hundreds of U.S. troops to the deadly carcinogen sodium dichromate. The previous hearing looked at the actions of the contractor, KBR. The hearing on Monday will examine the Army’s response, whether it has been appropriate with regard to both the soldiers and KBR.
He expects prompt corrective action, and will continue to monitor this to ensure that it happens. If additional hearings are required, he won’t be hesitant to hold them.
Thank you, Senator Dorgan.
Sunshine. At long last.
Folks, allow me to introduce you to Barry, who works in Sen. Dorgan’s office. The Senate is insanely busy today — as is Sen. Dorgan — so Barry’s going to keep track of questions for the Sen. for us.
Thanks, Barry!
Thanks Christy.
What’s incredibly shameful is that it has taken this long — and this much prodding — for Sgt. Maseth’s family and others to find out the whole truth about their loved one’s deaths.
What’s even worse? The IG reports make clear that there are substantial problems still existing from shoddy work — that are still yet to be corrected in both Afghanistan and Iraq.
Seems that KBR has committed enough crimes that they should qualify for a RICO indictment(s).
Also, I should note that the DPC has a hearing upcoming on August 3rd on the sodium dichromate poisoning issue that we’ve covered as well. That’s also still awaiting oversight from the Pentagon.
Barry, what can we do to help push the repayment of the bonus issue? It seems to me that should be a huge deal given that it was supposedly paid for excellent services.
I don’t call failing to ground a water pump “excellence” in electrical work. Not by a long shot. And that’s my taxpayer money being used to pad KBR pockets for failing to properly finish their work safely.
That’s right.
Christy, is the coverup a crime?
There are really restrictive parameters for bringing civil and criminal actions against contractors in a war zone. Those restrictions were put in place during WWII and exist for a good reason because the companies are working under difficult and dangerous conditions and we need them to build and/or supply or whatever else they are doing — so the protections from legal action are an incentive to get them to do work n a war zone.
What wasn’t anticipated, I don’t think, is that such shoddy work would get done at such a basic level that would be such a huge danger to our troops. We’ve had horrid electrical work on a very, very basic level — who doesn’t know to ground an electrical current attached to a water fixture? We’ve had exposure to toxic chemicals with the sodium dichromate. We’ve had tainted water supplied to troops. It goes on and on and shows a pattern of corruption, slack practices and lack of care on a lot of levels that opens the question on whether a standard of care was not met that might allow for legal action.
That’s being tried in civil courts at the moment with individual suits, I know, and also discussed within the Pentagon and DOJ.
This is ridiculous. Its not as if KBR is the only firm capable of doing this type of work. Jacobs couldn’t do this? Aecom? Fluor? SAIC? Bechtel? AMEC? Parsons? Not that I like any of them (defense contractors are defense contractors, after all), but any of those companies are bigger, better capitalized and less tainted than KBR. There are also the specialized logistics providers to the military like CACI and SRA – they could probably do this work a lot better than KBR can. If I were any of these competitors’ officers, I would seriously consider lodging a formal complaint against KBR and suing the government for some competitive bid action. There has to be some relationship between how well you do a job/are qualified to do a job, and Federal contract award decisions.
Senator Dorgan has called for the bonus money to be recovered. He renewed that call after the IG reports were issued. He expects to hear from the DOD in the next month or two on this question. Keeping a focus on this issue and on the recovery question would be very helpful as the question is being decided.
Senator Dorgan, thank you so much for sharing your thoughts with us. It appears that our troops are fighting with contractors as much as with any enemies.
I would add to your outrage by suggesting that you ask your colleagues “when did life become cheap in America?”
That really is infuriating. But when you think about what has been done to contracting supervision at the DOD the last few years — Bunny Greenhouse’s story being Exhibit A — is it any wonder that accountability has been slow going as well? The fact that it has taken the DPC pushing constantly and consistently just to get them to investigate a clear danger to troop safety with this electrical mess is shameful enough…
Seems like retrieval of bonuses is one thing and penalties for shoddy, unworkmanlike and incompetent work in violation of common standards is another. Did any of the work done or services provided meet specifications? If it did someone at DOD needs to be sent packing.
It’s great to see some progress being made – and attention being called to the new report.
It seems to me that much of this was known during the Bush years – you could find pieces of it in any number of books, especially (and I suspect these were books because news outlets weren’t interested in publishing such criticism of the Bush admin), but Congress – or its Repub majority wasn’t interested in publicizing or pursuing.
I hope Sen. Dorgan is going to continue pushing to get this info into the media, even if they don’t want to bother.
Do we have to get rid of the “burrowed in” Bush-Cheney-Rumsfeld era bureaucrats to end the bonuses and renewals of contracts?
They’ve left us so much crap to shovel. Sigh.
Barry, Does anyone in government pay any attention to the Nunn-McCurdy ammendment.
It is unfortunate the “energy” utilized to report the obvious “the wrongful death of a US soldier caused by negligence,” could not have been “utilized” properly grounding the electrical system. No “”electrical inspector” here in America would have signed off on the work. What happened was murder and the responsible parties should be charged with murder……..
ZP Heller: KBR Sued for Giving Soldiers Ice with ‘Traces of Body …Dec 5, 2008 … KBR Sued for Giving Soldiers Ice with ‘Traces of Body Fluids and …. person or group feeding American soldiers tainted food should be sent …
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/……..48797.html – Cached – Similar———————————————————
I have spotlighted this article,but there’s a LOT more about the despicable practices that need the antiseptic actions of sunlight.
Case in point, the article above.
Cruel and ghoulish don’t begin to describle the war profiteering of the NeoCONtras.
Barry Piatt –
Welcome to Firedoglake, and thanks for taking the time to be with us today.
how can this be anything but “dereliction of duty” ?? are there any hints these uniformed slackers will face real consequences ??
Will someone please give me some insight here?
Didn’t Bush enact some sort of Presidential order providing freedom from prosecution relating to the Iraqi contractors.
I seem to hazily recall that being a defense used by Blackwater.
Barry, please tell the Senator Thank You for doing his job. I’m not being snarky. I think that we all need to recognize honesty and truth when we see it.
And, a big thank you to CHS too, for helping get the news to us. I’m guessing msm won’t be dogging this report day after day like they do some other (non-important) stories.
the sad thing is that KBR’s best selling point is that it has the most experience in providing logistics and GC services in Iraq – for no better reason than the fact it bribed and nepotized its way to a virtual monopoly in that country.
I know that the military is different now in this era of technology but I remember when troops did this kind of work – including cooking. Why do we now have to hire outsiders at huge expense to do this? I’m disgusted with KBR, Eric’s renegades and the rest.
Its actually a very old tradition. Traditionally, in Western Europe, a lot of these roles (from putting up/taking down camps and temporary bases to cooking and cleaning) were done by a small army of “camp followers” – entire families would accompany the marching columns of soldiers, specifically to provide logistical support.
Was the inspector grounded in the code he was enforcing or just another clown acting like an inspector? What code or standard was to be followed?
I can remember, back in the day, when the troops always hated KP. And I’m NOT old enough to remember the days of camp followers ! :)
Bunny Greenhouse should be rehired and put in charge of overseeing these contracts.
Byron Dorgan is a national hero. He’s been on this stuff from the beginning, he just got no press. Surprise, surprise.
There is a bit of irony in the whole KBR saga. Although they’ve been around at least since ‘Nam, the idea of no-bid contracts for complete base logistics was begun in Bosnia, by Clinton. So we had Bill Clinton making Dick Cheney rich.
Cancel all their government contracts.
Why doesn’t the army have electricians of its own? Why are we hiring contractors at all.
Because, over the last few years (probably starting under Bush I but picking up speed under Clinton then into hyper-speed under Bush II) most all non combat related military support positions have been “out sourced”
So many new troops have no idea about KP or any of the other ways support troops used to operate.