KBR STILL PORKING

After years of double-, over- and inexplicable billing, it’s remarkable that U.S. military contractor KBR still gets any government-ordered work at all that isn’t done in a prison factory. Less remarkable are the results of an audit showing that, as slow as the U.S. has been in reducing its military presence in Iraq, KBR has been even slower, with their dawdling expected to add up to an additional $300-million in tax-payer money.

Unlike other contractors, who have reduced their foreign-soil workforces by up to 20 per cent over the past year, KBR is taking its time, with an average cost of roughly $9K in American greenbacks per employee per month. An audit by the Defense Contracting Auditing Agency further shows that KBR hasn’t even drawn up plans for reducing staff, something KBR says it hasn’t bothered with because the U.S. military has yet to finalize its own withdrawal agenda. DCAA commissioner Dov Zakheim has accused KBR of “dragging their heels as much as possible,” knowing the U.S government has already proven itself a sucker for dispensing cash.

Despite troop levels being reduced, the audit found KBR staff levels have increased from 20 months ago when troop numbers were at their highest.

by SCOTT SAXON