Arrests in Afghanistan contracting scandal

August 27, 2008 by Dagpotter · Comment
Filed under: Contract Awards, Justice Department, U.S. Air Force, crime, logistics 

Two Air Force personnel and three Afghan nationals were arrested over charges that bribes were paid to win contracts for military construction in Afghanistan. Two of the Afghans also resided in the United States. Supposedly a bribe of $30,000 was paid to the US Air Force officials to win a $1 M construction contract in 2004. Another bribe was paid later to win a road contract. Several US military and civilian personnel have been arrested and charged with contract related corruption in Kuwait, Iraq and the United States. With the amount of money going to the efforts in Afghanistan and Iraq there is always a chance for such crime.

There is more at The Wall Street Journal’s MarketWatch.com site.

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Story on earmarks illustrates issue

April 15, 2008 by Dagpotter · Comment
Filed under: Congress, Contract Awards, Digital Fusion, Federal Budget Process, SMDC, crime 

The Wall Street Journal and The Huntsville Times both have stories today on Congressional Earmarks, the Defense budget and corruption. See the stories here and here. The Journal highlights how a Huntsville company, Digital Fusion, received an earmarked contract from a Texas Democrat at around the same time they gave him a large campaign contribution. The Times is following up on a recent case where Federal workers at the Space and Missile Defense Command (SMDC) were taking bribes from contractors for giving contracts to them. In that case the contractors have yet to be named. The Federal investigators as part of their follow-up are looking at companies that received earmarked contracts through SMDC. The first case is not a crime unless you can tie the contribution directly to the contract award which is almost impossible without some kind of documentation. That is what befell Congressman Cunningham from California as they had written evidence linking the two events. SMDC spreads a lot of RDT&E money around each year, much of it earmarked by local Senators and Congressman. All received campaign contributions from contractors and deny any linkage. You be the judge.

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