Blind Oversight and Custer Battles

Blind Oversight and Custer Battles:

"by Onnesha Roychoudhuri

Last week, the Senate Democratic Policy Committee set up an oversight hearing to discuss 'waste, fraud, and abuse in U.S. government contracting in Iraq.' Notably absent were any Republicans or, for that matter, the administration officials who are actually supposed to oversee this issue. The hearings touched on a variety of outrages, including: Halliburton charging the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) for 42,000 daily meals for soldiers while only serving 14,000; the CPA's Inspector General finding that the Iraqi ministry could account for only 602 of the 8,206 guards on payroll; and a truck driver for one company describing a policy of abandoning or torching $85,000 trucks if they had a flat tire or minor mechanical problem."