US panel on wartime contracting to return to Afghanistan
Set up in 2008 after audits found rampant abuse in Iraq, the Commission on Wartime Contracting is charged by Congress with reviewing US contracting related to reconstruction, logistics for the military and security operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.
“This trip is an important part of carrying out our study mandate from Congress, and it?s especially important given that we?re intensifying our efforts in Afghanistan,” commission co-chair Michael Thibault said in a statement Friday.
“Among other things, we?ll be looking to see whether and how contracting lessons from the Iraq involvement are being applied to Afghanistan,” he said of the week-long trip.
The commission members will have a chance to share their findings from the Afghan visit at congressional hearings scheduled in September.
More than 200,000 contract employees work to support US military operations and reconstruction work in Iraq and Afghanistan, performing a range of jobs from guarding diplomats to washing uniforms and building hospitals.
In their first appearance before Congress in June, panel members presented an initial report pointing out waste and serious “problems” in how the US government oversees its vast army of contractors.
The commission cited the construction of a 30-million-dollar dining hall at the Camp Delta military base southeast of Baghdad as an example of poor oversight. Replacing the existing mess hall with a larger facility was unnecessary as US troops have to leave the country by the end of 2011.
The commission’s visit to Afghanistan comes as US commanders weigh cutting back on desk jobs and other support staff to free up troops for combat, a move that could require more private contractors to fill the gap.
Stuart Bowen, the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction, has warned the United States risks repeating the same mistakes in Afghanistan that have led to billions of dollars being squandered in Iraq on reconstruction.
Bowen told lawmakers in March that he estimates between three and five billion dollars have been wasted in the US effort to rebuild Iraq since 2003.
The panel’s final report is due in July 2010, but Congress could extend the bi-partisan commission’s mandate by another year.
