They are wrong for that

I picked up the New York times yesterday, Monday, August 29th. There was a story in the international section with a bi-line that read "PROCUREMENT." The story was about Bunnatine H. Greenhouse, a black female who was a career civil servant, working for the Army Corps of Engineers. Ms. Greenhouse was demoted in her position for doing what the taxpayers pay her to do, making sure that the government was getting what it paid for. She raised objections to a 7 BILLION dollar no bid contract that was awarded to Haliburton subsidiary Kellog, Brown and Root. Her argument was that, if the contract was being awarded without competition because of the urgency of the war, then it made sense for the contract to be of shorter duration as well. This sounds logical, but it cost her her rank in the federal service. Ms. Greenhouse, who is a true patriot in my eyes, called a $165 million dollar contract awarded to KB&R for logistical support in the balkans without competition "the most blatant and improper contract abuse I have witnessed in the course of my professional career." She also said that the defense secretary's office had improperly interfered in the awarding of the contract. If you don't know what's going on here, I'll break it down to you. When I was a procurement specialist with Job Corps, I signed a conflict of interest statement every time I sat on a panel. Since Job Corps contracts are competitively bid, I would be fired on the spot (and I should have been) if I had made my decisions based upon interests I had in a company that was bidding on the project. For instance, if I had a friend who ran a company that runs Job Corps centers (and I have several) it would be completely unethical for me to use my influence to help that person secure the contract, or to be swayed in my decision making because I had a relationship with that person, or worse, something to gain financially by helping him/her out. When we were attacked on September 11th, 2001, the Bush administration started exploiting opportunities to help their friends and financial supporters get rich. A big chunk of the BILLIONS and BILLIONS of dollars that is being spent in Iraq and Afghanistan is being done on a no-bid, non-competitive basis. We've seen the effect of these contracts over there, with Haliburton getting caught overcharging for fuel, food, etc. So the companies are given these huge contracts to provide a service, then they rip the country off in the process of providing that service. If you are not mad, you are really not paying attention. WAKE UP!