If You Lost $1.2 Billion ....

[Wakie]

http://edition.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/10/22/dyncorp.spending/index.html

How frustrated would you be if your employees misplaced $1.2 billion?  My company gets mad when I don't turn in a $30 taxi receipt.

[tik 🪀✨]

I can't even fathom $1.2 billion, let alone know how I'd feel if my employees misplaced it.

Let's see, let's say 1 Standard Unit of Anger (UA) = $10 of lost money (LM)

$1,200,000,000 LM = 120,000,000 UA

That's rather angry. Someone might get fired.

[MODU]

It's not lost.  It's just not accounted for under gov't contracting invoicing/auditing policies, especially if there are subcontractors involved.  Think of it as your checkbook.  If you don't record the information in the ledger properly, you aren't sure what you've spent or where your spent it at.  It's the same issue here.  They need to put together their expense reports properly, probably by month to coincide with their invoicing practice, and resubmit for auditing.  Just to give you a perspecitve of what's involved, one of my friends is currently working over there solely to put the various contractors finances in order.  She works 16 hour days/7 days a week and will be there for a total of 18 months. It's a lot of paperwork to keep track of.

[Wakie]

It's not lost.  It's just not accounted for under gov't contracting invoicing/auditing policies, especially if there are subcontractors involved.  Think of it as your checkbook.  If you don't record the information in the ledger properly, you aren't sure what you've spent or where your spent it at.  It's the same issue here.  They need to put together their expense reports properly, probably by month to coincide with their invoicing practice, and resubmit for auditing.  Just to give you a perspecitve of what's involved, one of my friends is currently working over there solely to put the various contractors finances in order.  She works 16 hour days/7 days a week and will be there for a total of 18 months. It's a lot of paperwork to keep track of.

I've done work for several govt clients in the past.  When you go into the process of accepting a government contract (especially a massive one) you create a bookkeeping system.  Certainly some money is going to be lost in the cracks, but the State Department is saying this one is so bad they're not even sure what they got for the money.

$43.8 million was supposed to build a residential camp for police training in Baghdad but it turns out the camp is empty.  $4.2 million went to VIP trailers and an Olympic-sized pool (ordered by the Iraqi Interior Ministry but not authorized by the US).

The best part of this story is the fact that DynCorp was in trouble for the same sloppy bookkeeping regarding a 2004 INL contract.

Jesus Christ, wtf is wrong with these *ss government contractors who can't follow simple procedure!?!?  More importantly, wtf is wrong with the idiots who award them billion dollar contracts after they've proven their inability to deliver clean books in the past!?!

[MODU]

Jesus Christ, wtf is wrong with these *ss government contractors who can't follow simple procedure!?!?  More importantly, wtf is wrong with the idiots who award them billion dollar contracts after they've proven their inability to deliver clean books in the past!?!

The problem here is that most of the financial work is either being done in Iraq itself, there are problems obtaining receipts and invoices from the Iraqi divisions and US suppliers in the US.  On the flip side, trying to send that much information (since they need the hard copies) to the US also adds to the delay and confusion.  Heck, I run into that problem here (without going into details).

[Wakie]

Jesus Christ, wtf is wrong with these *ss government contractors who can't follow simple procedure!?!?  More importantly, wtf is wrong with the idiots who award them billion dollar contracts after they've proven their inability to deliver clean books in the past!?!

The problem here is that most of the financial work is either being done in Iraq itself, there are problems obtaining receipts and invoices from the Iraqi divisions and US suppliers in the US.  On the flip side, trying to send that much information (since they need the hard copies) to the US also adds to the delay and confusion.  Heck, I run into that problem here (without going into details).

You take a photocopier or handheld scanner with you.  You make copies of docs and, if possible, send the electronic copies.  If for some reason the hard copies don't make it you still have the electronic backups.

If this were $20 million worth of receipts screwed up I'd give em a pass.  But it is far more.  It just screams "war profiteer".

[MODU]

If this were $20 million worth of receipts screwed up I'd give em a pass.  But it is far more.  It just screams "war profiteer".

hahaha . . . it might "scream" that, but it is far from the truth.

[Wakie]

If this were $20 million worth of receipts screwed up I'd give em a pass.  But it is far more.  It just screams "war profiteer".

hahaha . . . it might "scream" that, but it is far from the truth.

Well, the important lesson here is that if you want to make a lot of money all you need to do is get a contact within the government and sign a fat government contract.  You don't have to deliver on the contract and can pocket the money because there's no solid way to track it.

[David S]

Giving money to government is like giving booze to an alcoholic. They will blow every single penny and more. And they won't remember what they did with it. But $1.2 billion is trivial when you consider that the entire war is a fraud. So far it has cost about 1/2 trillion dollars and may cost over one trillion before its over.

Waste and fraud are endemic in government. Hundred dollar hammers, bridges to nowhere, and Medicare payments for wheelchairs that the beneficiary never received or ordered are  a few examples. A private company that operates the way government does would have been bankrupted years ago.

The best prevention is to limit the government to only the bare essential duties as defined in the constitution and not give them a single penny for anything else.

[MODU]

If this were $20 million worth of receipts screwed up I'd give em a pass.  But it is far more.  It just screams "war profiteer".

hahaha . . . it might "scream" that, but it is far from the truth.

Well, the important lesson here is that if you want to make a lot of money all you need to do is get a contact within the government and sign a fat government contract.  You don't have to deliver on the contract and can pocket the money because there's no solid way to track it.

You betcha

[Wakie]

Dave, you are correct.  It doesn't matter which party holds office.  There is a complete lack of responsible leadership in this country.  I guess the real question I have to ask is "why are the American people so incapable of selecting responsible leadership"?

[MODU]

Dave, you are correct.  It doesn't matter which party holds office.  There is a complete lack of responsible leadership in this country.  I guess the real question I have to ask is "why are the American people so incapable of selecting responsible leadership"?

Blame the two-party dominated system.  They keep out those that actually want to improve things.  Improvement means a loss of power for the Reps and Dems, and they will fight tooth and nail to prevent that from happening.

[Wakie]

Dave, you are correct.  It doesn't matter which party holds office.  There is a complete lack of responsible leadership in this country.  I guess the real question I have to ask is "why are the American people so incapable of selecting responsible leadership"?

Blame the two-party dominated system.  They keep out those that actually want to improve things.  Improvement means a loss of power for the Reps and Dems, and they will fight tooth and nail to prevent that from happening.

I agree that the 2-party system is the driving force behind the problem, but the 2-party system can only exist as long as the people support it.

[MODU]

I agree that the 2-party system is the driving force behind the problem, but the 2-party system can only exist as long as the people support it.

True, but people are brainwashed with the thought that voting for a third-party is just throwing their vote away, and that comes down from the Dems and Reps.  Indies/third-parties can't even run in some districts due to the rules put in place by Dems and Reps to block outside challengers.  And unfortunately, it's going to take a Perot or a Bloomberg or even a Gates to "buy" the election on the national level, or a bunch on the Congressional level, in order to break the mindset.