Windfalls Of War II

The Center for Public Integrity has a follow up to its highly acclaimed 2003 Windfalls of War, which profiled U.S. contractors in Iraq and Afghanistan, their staff has worked to expose further information about what’s behind those contracts. Here’s a snapshot of what they learned in the new report, Windfalls of War II:

• Government contracts – and the money behind them – are growing exponentially. U.S. government contracts for work in Iraq and Afghanistan have grown more than 50% annually, from $11 billion in 2004 to almost $17 billion in 2005 and more than $25 billion in 2006. Read more.

• Missing contracts and a lack of serious scrutiny. While the dollar amounts and complexity of war-related contracting has been going up, oversight has been going down, according to the Government Accountability Office. Example: The Federal Procurement Data System does not include any of the millions of dollars in contracts originating in Baghdad. Read more.

• Government contract allocations are hidden. The Center’s 2003 report was the first to show that Halliburton was the largest single contractor in Iraq. That is still true today—the former Halliburton subsidiary, KBR, Inc. (once known as Kellogg, Brown and Root) again earns the top spot among individual companies and subsidiaries. But that firm’s $16 billion is overshadowed by $20.4 billion in contracts that went to unidentifiable “foreign contractors,” representing about 45% of the money awarded to the top 100 contractors. Read more.

To read more about Windfalls of War II, please click here.