June 30, 2007 (LPAC)-Investigations and audits over the past four years have shown, repeatedly, that KBR, formerly part of Dick Cheney's Halliburton, has frequently delivered poor services, failed to control costs, and failed to keep track of government equipment under its control, as the prime contractor for U.S. Army logistics. One would think that the government would respond by banning KBR from bidding on government contracts for at least ten years. Instead, KBR has been rewarded with the slice of a new contract that potentially could be twice as lucrative as the $22 billion that KBR has made since 2001.
On June 28, the Army announced that KBR would share with two other corporations, Dyncorp International and Fluor Corp., a huge $150 billion/ten year contract to provide logistics support to the Army, under a program called LOGCAP IV. But the same audits that consistently found patterns of overbilling and mismanagement by KBR, also found patterns of contractor management problems on the part of the Army, and so the Army addressed that problem by hiring another contractor to oversee the three LOGCAP contractors. Serco, a London-based services contractor, was awarded a $225 million contract to manage the LOGCAP contract.
Serco has business relationships with BAE Systems, the mega-scandal British defense outfit. Serco and BAE are partners on a bid for the U.S. Air Force's air refueling tanker program and Serco is a subcontractor to BAE on a number of British defense contracts.
According to the Wikipedia entry on it, Serco has been a beneficiary of the privatization of government services, and now runs railways, four private prisons, the UK Ballistic Missile Early Warning System and has other military contracts besides, it manages air traffic control systems, and does many other things.
A commentary on the Huffington Post website notes that the having the Serco overseer relationship to KBR, means adding another layer of contracts, which means that government officials have even less clear oversight over the work being performed.
