Rogue contractors profiteer from US military expenditure with impunity because officials lack....

[maddezmom]

Rogue contractors profiteer from US military expenditure with impunity because officials lack the power to punish miscreants

US Defence Secretary Robert Gates announced last week that he wants to slash $100bn from the US military budget over the next five years. One top priority: cutting spending on private contractors. "I'm not satisfied with the progress made to reduce our over-reliance on contractors," Gates said.

One of the biggest problems that Gates faces is that a lot of the oversight of private contractors is done by other private contractors – a little like having the fox guard the hen house. Last April, Gates announced plans to offer 11,000 of these "acquisition professionals" federal jobs, to save money.

One year later, he conceded that approach wasn't sufficient. "The problem with contractors is – and what we've learned over the past year – you really don't get at contractors by cutting people," Gates said at a press conference. "So the only way, we've decided, that you get at the contractor base is to cut the dollars."

That's not the only way. Another way would be to strengthen the rules to punish bad contractors who indulge in waste, fraud and abuse.
more:http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2010/aug/17/defense-contractors-us-military

[KT2000]

1. heard him talking about that

and it sounded like it was kickback heaven.