WASHINGTON (AP) - Companies working on Iraq reconstruction have been accused of padding their profits through an insurance scam, leading to a criminal probe and hurried changes in the way many contracts are handled by the U.S. Army, according to internal military documents obtained by The Associated Press.
The investigation of two companies located in Tikrit - Sakar al-Fahal and al-Jubori - led the Army Corps of Engineers to scour its records for evidence of fraud by other contractors hired with billions of U.S. dollars to help rebuild Iraqi infrastructure devastated by the war, the documents reveal.
Whether Sakar al-Fahal and al-Jubori were paid for insurance they never obtained is a matter now being examined by the Army Criminal Investigation Command. The documents don’t state the total amounts in question.
Congress is looking into the problem, too. Concerned that the U.S. is footing the bill for phony or overstated insurance payments, the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee is to hold a hearing Thursday with witnesses from the Corps of Engineers, the Pentagon and the State Department.
I am shocked, just shocked I tell you, those wonderful Iraqis, the people that we have fought so valiantly to free from the clutches of the evil Saddam??Â
They turn on us and try to screw the Americans over and take advantage of our generosity?? The shame of it all…
There is a bright side though, Congress is looking into it, and that means more millions of our tax dollars waste, that’s a good thing, right?? And who knows, maybe, just maybe they’ll actually turn up some answers and find corrupt officials…
I just hope they’re not OUR officials…
The two companies under investigation have completed or are currently working on contracts worth close to $30 million, according to correspondence among Corps of Engineers officials. Three recent awards totaling $19.5 million carried an initial payroll of $410,000, the documents indicate. The insurance costs would have been about $30,000.
One thing that I don’t understand, why are WE paying millions and billions of American tax dollars to rebuild a nation that is still at war?? A nation that is sitting on BILLIONS of dollars of oil, oil the we desperately need, oil that could bring our gas prices down to an affordable level, oil that would make life a lot easier on every working and tax paying American, WHY are we putting out money like that?? Isn’t there a trade-off somewhere in this deal??
Although those figures may pale when compared with the more than $46 billion the United States has provided for relief and reconstruction of Iraq since April 2003, the problem could well be much bigger than just a few Iraqi companies.
Corruption runs rampant in Iraq, that’s the way business is done in Iraq, it’s their way of life, it’s an Arab right of passage, screw over any business partner you can…
We’re being taken to the cleaners folks, Iraq is bleeding us dry, we won’t allow drilling for oil in ANWR or any new locations here in the USA and we pour BILLIONS of our dollars into a nation that has oil running out of the ground, and all the while we pay $3.50 to $4.00 a gallon for gas and American truckers are almost out of business because of diesel prices running well over $4.00 a gallon…
When we went to Iraq the left and Dems screamed “No war for oil”, well, so far, it hasn’t been, but there has to be a pay-off for America, and the oil is as good a payoff as I can think of, what else has Iraq got that we need?? Other than oil??
I couldn’t think of anything either…
Full Story Here:
US probing Iraqi companies for insurance fraud
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Can’t think of anything more to add than what you just said..