To perform the analysis, the Times and ProPublica used a database of approximately 31,000 claims filed by contractors injured or killed in Iraq or Afghanistan extracted from a larger database maintained by the Labor Department known as the Longshore Case Management System.

You can read the entire report here.

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You can find the full report Iraq: Key Issues for Congressional Oversight here.

Background

The Departments of Defense(DOD) and State (State) have relied heavily on contractors in Iraq to support troops, civilian personnel, and reconstruction efforts. As of October 2008, DOD estimated it had more than 163,000 contractors under its contracts. Contractors have provided security services, life support, and facilities maintenance, among other things.

Issue

Over the past 6 years, contractors have played a key role in U.S. efforts to stabilize and rebuild Iraq. As the U.S. and Iraqi governments implement the November 2008 security agreement that governs the presence, activities, and drawdown of U.S. forces from Iraq, DOD and State will need to assess the type and level of contractor support needed during the drawdown of U.S.forces.

At the same time, both departments will need to overcome challenges in providing a sufficient number of trained personnel to effectively manage and oversee contractor performance. As the administration further defines its plans for Iraq, it will need to consider the implications of the changing nature of contractor support, as well as ways to enhance DOD’s and State’s management capacity.

Key Findings

Uncertainties regarding redeployment of contractors.

Maintaining accountability for and managing the disposition of U.S. government property under the control of contractors may present challenges to redeploying U.S. forces from Iraq. According to Defense Contract Management Agency officials, there is at least $3.5 billion worth of contractor-managed government-owned property in Iraq. From late 2007 through July 2008, planning for the redeployment of U.S. forces did not include a theater-wide plan for redeploying contractors.

DOD and State Have Had Difficulties Managing and Overseeing Contractors in Iraq

Both DOD’s and State’s ability to effectively manage their contractors in Iraq has been hindered by several challenges. The challenges experienced by one or both of these agencies include a failure to adequately plan for the use of contractors and clearly define their requirements, a lack of acquisition and trained contract management and oversight personnel with experience working in contingency operations, and a lack of policies and procedures.

Further, both DOD and State have had difficulties identifying the number of contractor personnel in Iraq. The lack of visibility makes it difficult for commanders and other senior leaders to make informed decisions on the food, housing, and security needed for contractors who reside on U.S. facilities.

In July 2008, DOD and State entered into an agreement to use a common database to track contractor personnel in Iraq; however, DOD officials have acknowledged that there are weaknesses in the systems designed to track contractor personnel in theater.

DOD’s and State’s Capacity to Provide Personnel to Oversee Contractors Remains Uncertain

The lack of a sufficient number of trained acquisition and contractor oversight personnel continues to present a considerable challenge to both DOD and State. This has contributed to higher costs and schedule delays and has hindered operations. For example,

• In September 2008, GAO reported that the lack of qualified personnel to oversee contracts, including those providing linguistic services andmaintaining the military equipment used in Iraq, hindered efforts to oversee and, as necessary, correct poor contractor performance in a
timely manner.

For example, in many cases, the contractor presented military equipment that failed government inspection and had to be repaired again at additional expense and time to the government. DOD personnel indicated they lacked the resources to perform data analyses,
identify trends in contractor performance, and improve quality processes.

• In July 2008, GAO raised concerns about whether DOD could sustain increased levels of oversight on its private security contractors. GAO found, for example, that the Defense Contract Management Agency (DCMA), which had been recently tasked to provide contract
administration over private security contracts, increased the number of its personnel in Iraq by shifting personnel from other locations and had no strategy for sustaining this increase.

• In January 2009, State’s Office of the Inspector General reported that the department’s Bureau of Diplomatic Security did not have a strong control environment to ensure its primary security service contract in Iraq is effectively managed due, in part, to frequent changes in management personnel and understaffing combined with a drastic increase in workload. In response, State noted that it planned to increase the number of contract oversight personnel in Iraq for its private security contract and develop additional policy and guidance to better manage these contractors.

Level and Nature of Future Contractor Support Needs to Be Assessed

As the drawdown of U.S. military forces occurs, DOD will need to assess the proper mix, roles, and responsibilities of military, civilian, and contractor personnel during this transitional period. Our prior work has shown that the nature and relative degree of contractor support can change as the military’s mission changes.

For example, in Bosnia and Kosovo, contractors assumed responsibility for certain support functions that had been previously performed by military personnel. Moreover, State’s reliance on contractors may increase as the department currently depends on DOD to provide some services.

The U.S.-Iraq security agreement complicates this assessment because it changes the conditions under which contractors operate. For example, the agreement includes several provisions that affect U.S. contractors working for DOD, such as providing the Iraqi government the primary right to exercise jurisdiction over U.S. contractors in the enforcement of criminal and civil laws. Similar agreements could also affect U.S. contractors working for DOD, particularly State’s security contractors.

Oversight Questions

1. To what extent are DOD and State taking actions to improve their ability to track and identify contractor personnel in Iraq? To what extent do the departments know the functions these contractors are performing?

2. What are the desired mix, roles, and responsibilities of military, civilian, and contractor personnel in light of the planned drawdown of U.S. forces? What actions are needed to achieve this desired mix?

3. What process is DOD using to assess the impact of the November 2008 security agreement and its implementation on DOD’s use of U.S. contractors to support deployed forces or other key functions? What plans has DOD developed in the event that contractors providing essential services withdraw their employees?

4. Is DCMA’s workforce sufficient in terms of size and skill level to support contingency operations without degrading its ability to oversee contractor performance in the United States and elsewhere?

5. Have DOD and State (1) assessed whether the drawdown of U.S. forces in Iraq will increase its reliance on contractors and (2) taken action to ensure they have sufficient numbers of contract oversight personnel?

6. What action is State’s Bureau of Diplomatic Security taking to ensure the effective oversight of its security contractors?

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Here is their release, which you might find of interest:

In every recession, there is a bull market somewhere. In 2009, it’s for security-cleared professionals in the defense, aerospace and homeland security industries, according to ClearanceJobs.com, the largest online resource for security clearance jobs, which today named the top ten U.S. cities for such positions. Ongoing federal spending for these industries remains steady at approximately $450 billion, which allows companies to actively pursue new government contracts for products and services sparking the need for professionals with security-clearance.

While some defense strongholds like Washington D.C. are well known, other cities would be considered unexpected hotbeds. All of the locations have one thing in common — more open positions than available candidates.

“Basic supply and demand creates an atmosphere where security-cleared candidates can command higher salaries, move between employers with relative ease and maintain more stable job security than other industries,” noted Evan Lesser, founder and Director of ClearanceJobs.com. “This year our job postings have increased 70% compared to this time last year and employers are working hard to fill these open positions. The imbalance of open positions to candidates puts the value of a security clearance at a premium.”

Top Cities:

— Washington D.C.: The sheer number of federal agencies in the district means a revolving door of vacancies requiring clearance. The Department of Labor estimates that 60 percent of the federal workforce will be eligible for retirement in the next ten years, leaving plenty of positions up for grabs.

— Orlando: Most major defense companies have a presence in this Florida
city as it has become a hub for military modeling and simulation.

— Tampa/St. Petersburg: Ongoing needs for technical, computer and
engineering skills, as well as those with backgrounds in international affairs, intelligence and languages are needed in the metropolitan area that serves the MacDill Air Force Base and the largest port in the state.

— Huntsville: With 50 percent more jobs posted on ClearanceJobs in the
past year for Rocket City, there appears to be no limit for candidates in computer sciences and integration, communications services, biotechnology and engineering.

— Dallas/Ft. Worth: The Silicon Prairie city is brimming with opportunities for software and systems engineers, field service technicians and general IT positions for security-cleared professionals.

— Colorado Springs: With two Air Force Bases and the U.S. Air Force Academy, the aerospace industry is only second to tourism in Colorado Springs. The focus is on highly technical missions, chiefly systems engineering and space surveillance.

— Tucson: There are some 80 aerospace firms in this city alone, now considered a ‘cluster industry’ region where firms are networking together in areas that include optics, aerospace, bioindustry and technology.

— Phoenix: The desert offers lots of room for defense contractors to test new vehicles, radar and delivery systems. Jobs from engineering to program management to manufacturing are open in this city at any given time.

— San Diego: The military and defense sector remains one of this city’s most stable assets, a nearly $25 billion dollar industry. The wide array of security-cleared job opportunities from construction to communications and electronics make San Diego very attractive to candidates.

— Los Angeles: Network systems and data communications analysts are two of the fastest growing occupations in both Los Angeles and Orange County, both of which command six figure salaries.

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Ending 1st quarter FY 2009, USCENTCOM reported approximately 259,400 contractor personnel working for the DoD in the USCENTCOM AOR. A breakdown of those personnel is provided below:

As of December 31, 2008

Contractors accompanying the force provide a broad range of capabilities. The main categories of contracts in Iraq and the percentages of contractors working on them are displayed below:

USCENTCOM reports, as of its 1st Quarter 2009 census, the following distribution of private security contractors in Iraq and Afghanistan:

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The website is found at: http://www.combatoperator.com and you can sign up for Sitrep there.

Combat Operator Radio can be heard on the right side of this blog. The main page is here.

Guests on the radio show have included so far:

William Beaver, Founder and Editor of DangerZoneJobs.com
Andy Bearpark, Director General at the British Association of Private Security Comapanies
Andy Thompson, Managing Director of Aprodex
David Isenberg, UPI columnist and author of Shadow Force, Private security contractors in Iraq
Eeben Barlow, Founder of Executive Outcomes
Doug Brooks, Founder and President of IPOA
Matt Loe, Head Jundi at the industry blog Feral Jundi.

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	The Market for Force: The Consequences of Privatizing Security by Deborah D. Avant  (2005)
	Contractor Confessions: Tales from Iraq by Russell Blair (2007)
	The Iron Triangle: Inside the Secret World of the Carlyle Group by Dan Briody (2004)
	Private Sector, Public Wars: Contractors in Combat - Afghanistan, Iraq, and Future Conflicts (The Changing Face of War) by James Jay Carafano (2008)
	Iraq, Inc.: A Profitable Occupation (Open Media) by Pratap Chatterjee (2004)
	Halliburton’s Army: How a Well-Connected Texas Oil Company Revolutionized the Way America Makes War by Pratap Chatterjee (2009)
	From Mercenaries to Market: The Rise and Regulation of Private Military Companies by Simon Chesterman and Chia Lehnardt (2009)
	Fortune’s Warriors: Private Armies and the New World Order by James R. Davis (2002)
	Big Boy Rules: America’s Mercenaries Fighting in Iraq by Steve Fainaru (2008)
	Highway to Hell: Dispatches from a Mercenary in Iraq by John Geddes (2008)
	Iraq for Sale: The War Profiteers (DVD - 2006)
	Shadow Force: Private Security Contractors in Iraq by David Isenberg (2008)
	Blood Money: Wasted Billions, Lost Lives, and Corporate Greed in Iraq by T. Christian Miller (2007)
	Licensed to Kill: Hired Guns in the War on Terror by Robert Young Pelton (2007)
	Blackwater: The Rise of the World’s Most Powerful Mercenary Army by Jeremy Scahill (2008)
	Shadow Company DVD special edition Gerard Butler (DVD - 2008)
	Spies for Hire: The Secret World of Intelligence Outsourcing by Tim Shorrock (2008)
	A Bloody Business: America’s War Zone Contractors and the Occupation of Iraq by Gerry Schumacher and Steve Gansen (2006)
	Private Warriors by Ken Silverstein and Daniel Burton-Rose (2000)
	Corporate Warriors: The Rise of the Privatized Military Industry, Updated Edition by P. W. Singer (2007)
	An Unorthodox Soldier: Peace and War and the Sandline Affair by Lieutenant-Colonel Tim Spicer OBE (2000)
	60 Minutes - Blackwater (October 14, 2007) (DVD 2007)
	Escape in Iraq: The Thomas Hamill Story by Thomas Hamill and Paul T. Brown (2005)

KBR announced it has been awarded a $35.4 million contract by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), Transatlantic Programs Center, Winchester, Va., for the Phase II design and construction of a convoy support center at Camp Adder in Iraq.

However, the Associated Press spin on this story was: KBR wins contract despite criminal probe of deaths:

Defense contractor KBR Inc. has been awarded a $35 million Pentagon contract involving major electrical work, even as it is under criminal investigation in the electrocution deaths of at least two U.S. soldiers in Iraq.

The story also summarizes the number of electrocution deaths being investigated that have been blamed on KBR.

Meanwhile there was a major development in the second story about the contaminated peanut butter, which as, so far, “killed eight people and sickened 575 others”. The ruling will make the critics of KBR specifically and the private contracting industry in general, simply crazy:

The company at the center of a probe into a nationwide outbreak of food poisoning from tainted peanut butter has been banned from doing business with the federal government, the Agriculture Department announced on Thursday.

Peanut Corporation of America and its subsidiary, Tidewater Blanching LLC, have been suspended for one year from receiving prime- or sub-contracts from any federal agency, and from participating in any federal program.

USDA also has started the process of debarring the company, which would carry a stiffer penalty of a three-year ban on government business (the one-year suspension would be included in those three years).

How long do you think it will take until the two stories are tied together with a headline like Why Peanut Corporation and not KBR?

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First up is the story of Thomas Hamill, a KBR truck driver, who was kidnapped and held hostage in Iraq, until he escaped after 24 days.

I remember visiting Camp Navistar, near the Kuwait/Iraq border, several times not long after Hamill was kidnapped and several members of his KBR convoy were killed. There were civilian contractor truck drivers there, and I wondered if they were worried or frightened by what happened. They sure didn’t look it. Like Hamill describes in the book, they were all there by choice to do an important job.

Escape in Iraq: The Thomas Hamill Story describes the 24 days in captivity in a very matter of fact style. Because Hamill is a strong Christian, he writes many of the prayers that he used to get through the ordeal. I have to admit that at first I found all the prayers a bit distracting, but the more I read the clearer it became that his faith is what helped him stay strong and survive.

Because of the focus of Danger Zone Jobs, I like to read books that describe what it’s like working as a contractor, and in this one most of the first 40 pages talk about his background, including how he made the decision as a farmer/truck driver in Mississippi to go to Iraq, the process of getting hired by KBR, and what it was like working as a KBR convoy commander at Camp Anaconda in Iraq.

Hamill video on Al-Jazeera

What made the book especially vivid for me, as crazy as this sounds, is Hamill’s descriptions of what his captors gave him to eat. I spent 16 years in Kuwait and as a result, could see, smell and taste all the food he was talking about. I could also picture the desert shacks they hid him in, as will anyone who’s been in the Middle East. The collection of photos throughout also helps give you a clear sense of person and place.

I highly recommend reading this book for what it is: an honest hard-working contractor’s story told without frills. I liked these comments from the Air Force SERE (Survival, Evasion, Resistance, Escape) debriefers who interviewed Hamill:

“We don’t know how you did it. Your aren’t a soldier, and you haven’t been trained. We have a book we go by, we train by this book. You don’t have the book, yet you did everything right in line with it’s instructions.”

Available through Amazon: Escape in Iraq: The Thomas Hamill Story

Carafano is also the author of a book I am currently reading called: Private Sector/Public Wars: Contracting in Combat-Iraq, Afghanistan and Future Conflicts.

His lastest book

His paper (which you can read here) included several “talking points” of interest to anyone following the military contracting industry:

By 2007, there were more than 100,000 civilians working under U.S. government contracts in Iraq and Afghanistan. By some estimates, contractors account for 40 percent of operational costs.

• The Commission on Wartime Contracting is due to issue an interim report in 2009, which should focus on specific priorities in order to provide a blueprint for building an optimum system for contract employees in combat conditions.
• The government must improve its capacity to make and oversee contracts, particularly by fixing the lack of competent contracting officers.
• A new process should be implemented for determining the most effective times and missions for employing contractors.
• The U.S. military should revive its operations research and maintain a robust corps of operational research analysts for evaluating and determining the needs of the military that can be met by the private sector for future operations.

What I found particularly interesting was his vision of “What the Future Could Look Like”:

An experienced and capable contracting officer at all deployed locations.

Contracting officers armed with all the support tools and authorities they need to do their job. A government workforce with sufficient author­ity to do a job well and that will be held account­able for its areas of responsibility. Contracting officers will work closely with all military forces and other interagency representatives in their areas of responsibility. They will supervise con­tracts under a contingency contracting process capable of matching the needs of the force with contractors qualified and equipped to do the job.

The contracting officer and the contractors themselves will be overseen by an integrated, qualified team of auditors and inspectors who provide real oversight and accountability, but who do not interfere with the ability of the con­tractors to do their jobs. All their work will be part of a system that provides visibility and trans­parency so that everyone who needs to under­stand the process and why will have access to the relevant information.

Clearly contracting is an aspect of military operations that will stay. This means that both the military and the industry must take a much longer view about making the process work.

For the Danger Zone Jobs reader, the important point, given this long-term view, is that contracting could have a career path, which means paying attention to career planning, especially if the market tightens after troop drawdowns.

Instead of the one off contract to Iraq or Afghanistan for example, contractors could take an approach similar to the military: assignments overseas followed by assignments back in the US, but staying within the contracting industry.

But in the survey that we published (see Free Report You Really Must Read), I asked “Does your career path include working as a contractor in the US as well as overseas”.

50% said no, only overseas.

According to DOD, as of July 1, 2008,there were 200,000 DOD contractors in Iraq and Afghanistan, compared to 180,000 uniformed military personnel.

Contractor Types and Numbers

The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimates that from 2003 through 2007, DOD obligated $54 billion for contractors working in Iraq.

Contractor Types and Numbers

According to the report:

“Projecting into the future, a senior DOD official said that civilian contractors may make up 50% of all DOD personnel deployed in future overseas operations. Unless a policy decision is made to expand the military, many analysts argue that the large-scale use of contractors will remain a fixture of the military’s force structure for the foreseeable future.”

What do you think?