PMCs, KBR and the Peanut Butter Crisis
There were two big stories that the media chewed on last week:
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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7 Responses to “PMCs, KBR and the Peanut Butter Crisis”
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Because it is not KBR electricians, it was IRAQ locals that the military makes KBR hire and train that do the work.
Maybe the military should change its policies.
Well this one is simple. DCMA stands for Defense Cover-up Management Agency. Firstly, it is entirely the responsibility of DCMA to oversee the Contractor KBR. DCMA is the Taxpayers last check and balance. When I tried to give KBR their first Corrective Action Report, the commander of DCMA wanted to pull it back. Well, Colonel McQuain and Captain David, KBR was only delivering non-potable water to the Green Zone in sewage trucks. Yes, that’s right. If you were in the Green Zone in late 2004 through 2005, you were taking showers in sewage water. Even though there was a SOP - Statement of Procedures that every truck be inspected and treated with chlorination, KBR was not following the SOP for the simple reason DCMA was not enforcing the SOP. I would have to ask, what did DCMA commanders have to gain by being soft on KBR? The problem with that very lax oversight was to allow over 1,700 customers of KBR in the Green Zone, plus several countries embassy’s staff to be exposed to the water-borne parasites that we have been reading about at other bases. KBR was entrusted to serve them all. So, to blame just KBR is a stretch. The Systemic failures of DCMA took years of deriliction of duty to manifest - a culture of incompetence and complicentcy and complacency. 2-Star General Daryl Scott mysteriously stepped down or was dismissed as the head of DCMA. What happened General?
If we want to see results and not cover-ups, DCMA needs a mandate and the Quality Assurance Representatives must be independent of DCMA commanders who tell them to “destroy evidence” that might be used against KBR.
Further. IG inspections can never - EVER be done by the U.S. Army. NEVER. It takes them to long to investigate and they will never tell the truth when the problem lays with the same U.S. Army they are investigating. They will lie every time. For instance. When KBR was allowing fuel trucks to bring us non-potable water, “customers” were complaining that their showers smelled like diesel fuel. The IG investigation tried to tell a Congresswoman that “a rocket hit 3 miles away” and “the contamination was from rocket fuel.” Are you guys stupid or what. And the Congresswoman who got that story and did not follow up with a university professor or a non-U.S. Army military expert would say in a second that the IG investigators were collectively lying. Not one, but all involved. President Obama would do the country a favor to abolish all Army IG investigation and turn this over to the FBI. It is the FBI who are assisting the U.S. Army Procurement Fraud Unit in Kuwait and the Middle East. Ethics and integrity seem beyond the U.S. Army frankly. Look at Major John Cockerham and the bus-load of Army officers in Contracting scandals. The highest level of integrity in the world should be those officers and I am here to tell you. No way. DCMA is responsible and should named in the same lawsuit by those families. They are responsible for Quality Assurance and testing before they sign off on KBRs cost-plus contract activities. Each and every project. So, to the families out there, MG Daryl Scott would be in charge from December 2003 - January 2006, Director, Defense Contract Management Agency, Alexandria, Va. (Right off his Bio) - Hold those responsible who need it KBR and DCMA.
It finally happened today in the Federal Times. The article is called “When suspending contractors, size — not action — matters”
You can find it here:
http://federaltimes.com/index.php?S=3971587
When a deadly salmonella outbreak was tied to unsanitary conditions at Peanut Corp. of America, the Agriculture Department took strong action. It declared the company as lacking in “business integrity and business honesty” and cut off further business with the government.
Government’s reaction to KBR’s misdeeds was quite different.
The company last month admitted bribing Nigerian officials to obtain contracts, a violation of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, and is under investigation for negligent homicide in the deaths of at least two of 24 soldiers, Marines and civilians electrocuted in KBR-maintained facilities as a result of shoddy electrical work.
Bribery and poor performance are grounds for banning a company from federal business, but that did not happen to KBR.
The reason, critics say, is that a double standard is applied to companies based on how big the companies are and how much federal work they do.
Last year alone, KBR did $5 billion in government business. The Peanut Corp. of America did $5 million in the past nine years.
“The size of the company has everything to do with how the suspension and debarment system is used,” said Danielle Brian, executive director for the Project on Government Oversight.
So now KBR need’s to set up Laboratories to test what the government buys and when will someone check the actual facts behind the electrocutions and blame the Government that put them in the situation? If KBR does not have a contract to fix something before an incident they can’t be blamed just because they were brought in after the fact.
what i saw in afghanistan concerning electrical installation on fobs and main bases was a combination of no or little materials to correctly install electrical components[water pumps,heaters,wiring]correctly,and that kbr didnt want to pay for liscenced union electricans to install power correctly[proper grounding,proper phasing]which led to the electrocutions of personel there,,the company i worked for hired only liscenced union electricans[i-s-i]used only the best panels,components,wiring,plus everything was done according to code and burying wire at the correct depth,mixing charcoal with salt,dirt to get a good ground to drive the ground rods into,or a delta[3 ground rods] as the soil there had little or no conductivity,,only the best generators available to survive the extremes in climate and conditions there as it is brutal to anything mechanical,electrical[dust,sand,heat,cold,rockets,bullets,etc,etc,
KBR’s building trades problems are due to a lack of qualified (a.k.a. licenced) tradesmen, which are overseen by unqualified (a.k.a. non-licenced) supervisors, foremen and engineers. KBR’s perspective is that if it costs “X” to hire a licenced ex-pat plumber, why not hire someone from Bosnia, India or Albania for 1/2 of “X”? After all, this Bosnian, Indian or Albanian has assured the recruiter that he’s been in the trade for decades. And since there’s no way whatsoever to valid or dispute what this for
Bosnian, Indian or Albanian says, KBR will gladly turn a blind eye to such troublesome issues as bona fides and realize the profit of “X minus 1/2 of X”. Since 90% of plumbing or electrical is relatively straightforward, who will know the difference.
Ahh, but it’s that remaining 10%, and especially the irksome 1% or 0.1% of times that you need some one to do more than just twist on a wirenut or replace a showerhead that gets people inconvenienced or injured. And if I am that Bosnian, Indian or Albanian and need technical support, who am I to call? My non-licence former truck driver boss, who only got this job because he knows who ass to kiss and which back to stab? One of my fellow Bosnian, Indian or Albanians? They all fear being sent home, where jobs are scarce. Instead, I’ll do my best and pray no one gets hurt. After all, these are AMERICAN soldiers and not Bosnian, Indian or Albanian soldiers, so who really cares if they’re inconvenienced or injured? The American taxpayer doesn’t care, as evidenced by the fact that the majority of KBR employees are in fact Bosnian, Indian, Albanian, etc. and hold “licences” of dubious qualifications. In fact, mine cost me $50 in Nepal, a month’s wages there but a mere pitance compared to what I make from the Yankees.
As you can see, I am quite fed up with the whole KBR scene: the a-hole truck driver boss with all of the managerial professionallism and charm of a circus clown, to the Albanian elctricians and plumbers who say that “that’s good enough” or “we don’t have a code where I come from”. The fact that the Army puts up with this crap is beyond me (the Air Force and the Marines certainly don’t). If Obama hadn’t screwed up the economy so bad, I’ld come home tomorrow; as it is, I’ll do one more year and then go back to my sole propieter licence contractor gig.
Its not that KBR hasn’t hired qualified electricians in the past twelve months, It is the fact that these electricians are being supervised by people unqualified to make effective nmanagement decisions. An example of this is that the Utilities-1 position at Kandahar is a plumber who tries to direct electricians on the quality of work they will perform, what parts they will use, and micromanage the entire force with management philosophies that include harassmant, bullying, intimidation to the point that in a metting with approximately 18 to 20 people, this same Utilities1- 1 with malice and cruelty, sprayed an electrician point blank in the face with a chemical compound. The Base manager present at the time laughed along with the Utilities -1 person who apparently got a big kick out of the deal. These managers still work for KBR. Of course complaints were filed, ignored, and tossed aside. The Utilities- 1 admitted to doing the act in another meeting and chalked it up to “bad habits”. These electricians who are putting themselves at risk on a daily basis are trying to do the right thing in spite of management who will not admit to upper management that they don’t know what they are doing and do not want to admit to years of fraudulent behavior. It is easier to blame things on the guys doing the work.
Another example is that for months, these same electricians have begged for proper tools, materials, meters, testers, and management support so that they may perform their tasks. For months these electricians have been blown off and now there are over 140 electricians at Bagram Airfield, most of which are new, have no ao little training on the mission that is trying to be accomplished. no tools, ladders, parts, or material to dom their job yet everyday these same electricians recieve threats concerning behavior from management that display the worse possible behavior imaginable. The best example of this is a manager who keeps Jack daniels in his room- a violation of General Order number One, yet will terminate someone’s employment for going to the PX.
There is plenty more where this came from, all you need to do is ask.