Reports Fault Oversight of Iraq Police Program
Millions Paid to Contractors Squandered on Unauthorized Work, Shoddy Facilities, U.S. Auditors Say

By Griff Witte and Renae Merle
Washington Post Staff Writers
Wednesday, January 31, 2007

The U.S. government has squandered millions of dollars intended for police training programs in Iraq because of rampant problems overseeing contractors, according to federal reviews released yesterday.

In one case, contractors building a camp for American trainers constructed an Olympic-size swimming pool that hadn't been ordered. In another, human waste reportedly continues to leak from plumbing fixtures at a barracks for Iraqi police recruits, a year after the problem was first identified and despite assurances from the contractor that the problem was being fixed.

Together, the reports offer a revealing glimpse at one aspect of the $38 billion American-led reconstruction effort. The police training program has been repeatedly flagged by U.S. officials as particularly crucial to the war effort, given the need for effective Iraqi security forces to take over from the U.S. military. While yesterday's reports by the special inspector general for Iraq reconstruction do not address the training itself, they do find major flaws with how both the government and its contractors attempted to build the program's facilities.

The flaws, auditors concluded, all had common roots: The government's failure to monitor how contractors were spending taxpayer money.

But the two contracts reviewed by the special inspector general's staff produced vastly different types of problems. One of the contracts called on Falls Church-based DynCorp International to build a camp to house its trainers. Auditors found that the company performed $4.2 million worth of work that had not been authorized by the contract, including building the pool and 20 VIP trailers at the behest of Iraqi officials. Because of security concerns, the camp was never used.

At the $73 million Baghdad Police College, meanwhile, inspectors uncovered numerous examples of shoddy construction, including ones that pose potential health problems to Iraqi recruits. The problems, some of which were first reported publicly in September, had still not been fixed when inspectors returned to the site months later for follow-up inspections. Auditors said the contractor, California-based Parsons, knew about the plumbing problems as early as a year ago but failed to correct them.

"As a result, the unsanitary conditions continue," the report said.

Parsons was ultimately paid $5.3 million for substandard work, auditors found. The Army Corps of Engineers will also be paid -- up to $2.5 million -- for monitoring Parsons's work, even though auditors said its oversight was "essentially non-existent."

The inspector general's office said it would begin to investigate evidence of potential fraud connected to the project.

In response to the report, the corps said in a statement that it is "making steady progress on completing warranty repairs related to the sewer, water and electrical systems" at the police college.

In a written exchange, the corps also challenged some of the auditors' findings, contending that in one instance the leaking liquid identified as human waste was actually "dirt-filled fresh water."

Officials in the special inspector general's office replied that regardless of what the liquid is, the corps "needs to realize that the plumbing system is not only tremendously flawed, but the cadets may be supplied with hazardous water."

James F. McNulty, chief executive of Parsons, said in a statement that the company's work had been hampered by security concerns. "Extremely difficult security conditions factored significantly into problems that occurred, and we worked to fix the problems as soon as we learned about them,'' he said.

Parsons, a $3 billion-a-year construction and engineering firm, had been one of the United States' largest contractors in Iraq. The company's work first came under scrutiny last spring, when the special inspector general's office reported that the company would complete only a small fraction of the 150 health clinics it was tasked to build. The focus on Parsons intensified in the fall, when the special inspector general's office blamed the company and the corps for problems at the police college.

At a congressional hearing in September, a Parsons executive, Earnest Robbins II, testified that the problems at the college would be fixed. "We are repairing it at no cost to the government," he said.

The company left the repairs to an Iraqi subcontractor, which it blamed for botching the job in the first place. In yesterday's report, however, auditors also found fault with Parsons's designs, which they said did not include enough detail to allow subcontractors to do the work properly.

In its review of work under DynCorp's $1.8 billion State Department contract, the special inspector general found that the department's lax oversight led it to pay $43.8 million for a residential camp for DynCorp trainers that has never been used.

Some of the work on the camp, including the pool and VIP trailers, was requested by the Iraqi Interior Ministry but was never authorized by U.S. officials.

The State Department ordered work on the project stopped in September 2004, shortly after issuing the contract, because of concerns that the location was too dangerous for DynCorp's trainers. DynCorp initially told the department that the camp had already been completed, but more than a year later said it wasn't.

In 2005, a State Department official became concerned about "potential fraud" regarding DynCorp's billing for 500 trailers that may have never been built. Yesterday's report said the investigation is ongoing.

The department also can't account for $36.4 million of weapons and equipment, including armored vehicles and body armor, because DynCorp's invoices were vague, the report said. "DynCorp invoices were frequently ambiguous and lacked the level of detail necessary to identify what was procured," the report said.

A State Department official said the agency initially became concerned about the contract in 2005 and has revamped its contracting practices for work in Iraq, Afghanistan and Jordan. According to the report, the department is reviewing all of DynCorp's contracts and identified a $1.1 million billing error earlier this month.

"We haven't been contacted about the information in this report," said Greg Lagana, a DynCorp spokesman, "but we believe that any investigation or audit will show that the company acted responsibly and with concern for the expenditure of public funds. Of course, should there be any audit or investigation, we will cooperate fully and openly."