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Document: Blackwater Overcharged for Labor Costs
According to an audit performed for the State Department inspector general of Blackwater's 2004 Iraq contract, it paid to be a guard for the private security firm. Page seven of the report -- excuse my handwritten notes in the margins -- shows that Blackwater charged the government for seven days' pay per week, even though the guards only had to work six. That method of accounting "is considered acceptable," the report says, if Blackwater properly accounted for its employees' actual work. And, wouldn't you know it: the company didn't.
The proposed "daily" labor rates are computed to recover the seven days pay over six "billing" days. This method is considered acceptable as long as these individuals only actually work six days and Blackwater bills for the six out of seven days actually worked. Our review of timekeeping procedures (Appendix 1), however, disclosed that, at present, Blackwater only accounts for the number of days these individuals are physically present while deployed at their duty station and not the days actually worked.
Let's look at that Appendix, shall we? It found that the company doesn't believe in such encumbrances as time sheets:
The contractor does not employ the use of individual employee "time sheets" for labor performed in Iraq. Rather, the contractor uses a system whereby a "muster" sheet is prepared by the agent in charge (AIC), (detail leader) simply indicating whether the individuals are physically present at their duty station or in travel or in other status on a daily basis. At the end of every pay period, the muster sheet is transmitted to the assistant program manager at Blackwater in Moyock, NC. ... The assistant program manager indicated that there have been instances where an individual was reported as being in-country at the duty station but was in fact in a travel status or otherwise not physically present at the duty station.As a result, there is no individual employee certification of actual days worked or the hours actually worked. There is no approval of employees' time other than, as the contractor explained, the muster sheet is e-mailed to Blackwater by the AIC.
Hey Josh, can we switch TPM to that style of bookkeeping?
Comments (6)
Paulie wrote on December 21, 2007 2:36 PM:we don't need no stinkin' timesheets!
thepeoplechoose wrote on December 21, 2007 4:12 PM:Iraq is, and has been since the beginning, a boondoggle for all manner of Bush cronies. That includes oil patch companies as well as outfits like Blackwater and every other provider of services that has ties to the administration. The American taxpayer has been taken to the cleaners by this administration. That is just another reason Bush should have long since been kicked out of office and most properly be doing some hard time.
But mostly it is because of the carelessness with which Bush has safeguarded the nation. On that score he is the worst president ever. To me, it is all too evident that American lives simply are not the priority that Bush would have you believe. There are too many things that have "just happened" which refute that. And I am being kind when I say this is through carelesness. Ineptness would seem to play a role, but the central impetus for everything about this administration has been money. Plain and simple.
And that is characteristic of the Bush family all the way back to Samuel P. Bush. And the father of Samuel was James Smith Bush who was an attorney and Episcopal priest. Makes him a double liar in my view. Guess that explains how come GW is such a liar. This family has put the screws to average Americans since day one. And they couldn't care less.
Phidda wrote on December 21, 2007 4:17 PM:Were these the same employees that Blackwater characterized as independent contractors?
Anacher Forester wrote on December 21, 2007 6:40 PM:If our personal accounts were kept like this, the US gov't would fine our asses and/or throw us in jail. Instead, Blackwater gets a bonus.
AF
greg wrote on December 22, 2007 11:43 AM:This isn't about ineptness or any such thing. Looting the treasury is the whole point of the Bush administration. That they now appear so careless about it is only because they thought they would have a compliant Congress forever, and then they could lock all this stuff up in his presidential records until after we're all dead.
footsore wrote on December 24, 2007 11:38 AM:Moyock? That sounds like some sort of Brooklynese, used to denigrate and insult. Oh yeah this is Blackwater, maybe it's just irony.
footsore