Wartime Contracting In Iraq And Afghanistan

Over the past decade, America's military and federal-civilian employees, as well as contractors, have performed vital and dangerous tasks in Iraq and Afghanistan. Contractors' support however, has been unnecessarily costly, and has been plagued by high levels of waste and fraud. The United States will not be able to conduct large or sustained contingency operations without heavy contractor support. Avoiding a repetition of the waste, fraud, and abuse seen in Iraq and Afghanistan requires either a great increase in agencies' ability to perform core tasks and to manage contracts effectively, or a disciplined reconsideration of plans and commitments that would require intense use of contractors. Failure by Congress and the Executive Branch to heed a decade's lessons on contingency contracting from Iraq and Afghanistan will not avert new contingencies. It will only ensure that additional billions of dollars of waste will occur and that U.S. objectives and standing in the world will suffer. Worse still, lives will be lost because of waste and mismanagement.

The final report of the Commission on Wartime Contracting in Iraq and Afghanistan : hearing before the Subcommittee on Readiness and Management Support of the Committee on Armed Services, United States Senate, One Hundred Twelfth Congress, first session, October 19, 2011.

Contents: (1) Background; (2) Managing Contractors during Contingency Contracting; (3) Number and Roles of Contractors in CENTCOM, in Iraq, in Afghanistan; (4) Efforts to Improve Contractor Management and Oversight; (5) Contractors in DoD Strategy and Doctrines: (a) Can Contractors Undermine U.S. Efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan?; (b) DoD Strategy and Doctrine: The National Defense Strategy and Quadrennial Defense Review; Field Manual on Operations; Field Manual on Counterinsurgency; New Doctrine, DoD Instructions, and Other Efforts; (6) Selected Congressional Hearings and Legislation; (7) Contract Management, Oversight, and Coordination: Training Contractors and the Military in Contingency Contracting. Illus.

In 2008 Congress established the Commission on Wartime Contracting in Iraq and Afghanistan (CWC) in response to increasing indications of widespread waste, fraud, and abuse in gov¿t. contracting. The CWC is charged with evaluating and reporting on America¿s wartime contracting for logistics, reconstruction, and security. This Interim Report describes the CWCs work to June 2009, which includes hundreds of meetings and briefings, analysis of existing reports and audits, hearings on Capitol Hill, and factfinding trips to the theaters of operation. This Report highlights some timesensitive issues, especially given the challenges of the drawdown in Iraq and the buildup in Afghanistan. Charts and tables. This is a print on demand report.

Contractors represent over half of the U.S. presence in the contingency operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, at times employing more than a quarter-million people. They have performed vital tasks in support of U.S. defence, diplomatic, and development objectives. But the cost has been high. Poor planning, management, and oversight of contracts has led to massive waste and has damaged these objectives. Contracting decisions made during urgent contingencies have often neglected the need to determine whether host-nation governments can or will sustain the many projects and programs that U.S. contracts have established in their countries. This book examines the work of Congresses bipartisan Commission on Wartime Contracting in Iraq and Afghanistan, created to study waste, fraud, abuse, accountability, and other issues in contingency contracting, and to make recommendations for improvement.

This report examines Department of Defense (DOD) logistical support contracts for troop support services in Iraq and Afghanistan administered through the U.S. Army's Logistics Civil Augmentation Program (LOGCAP), as well as legislative initiatives which may impact the oversight and management of logistical support contracts. LOGCAP is an initiative designed to manage the use of civilian contractors that perform services during times of war and other military mobilization. The first LOGCAP was awarded in 1992. Four LOGCAP contracts have been awarded for combat support services in Iraq and Afghanistan. The current LOGCAP III contractor supports the drawdown in Iraq by providing logistical services, theater transportation, augmentation of maintenance services, and other combat support services.