Finally. Now lets hope that they will square this stuff away and do what is necessary to prevent this from getting out of hand again in the future. I would also hope that the State Department would fire a few folks responsible for not doing what was necessary to control this contract and maintain order starting back in 2007.
Now one thing I hope doesn’t happen, is that the good guys on this contract who didn’t do anything wrong, don’t get shoved onto some black list. That is stupid. The folks who are at fault, are the leaders, and those are the ones that should be on a black list. To put everyone that was ever involved with this contract on some dorkwad list, or who had worked for AGNA at one point or another on a no hire list, is not right. Identify who the problem children were, and put them on the black list if need be.
And for those guys who are innocent of any wrong doing or got caught up in this poorly managed mess, I wish you well and I really hope this doesn’t tarnish your chances for future employment.
The other story on this, is check out David Isenberg’s article at PMH about IPOA and it’s slow progress on the investigation of complaints in regards to Armor Group North America’s performance. Especially after it was brought up at the hearing. –Matt
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U.S. Seeks New Guards in Kabul
December 9, 2009
By AUGUST COLE
The State Department plans to seek new bids to protect the U.S. Embassy in Kabul after the current firm ran into staffing and oversight problems.
The company, ArmorGroup North America, a unit of Wackenhut Services Inc., will be allowed to bid on the new contract, the State Department said.
“The recent allegations of misconduct and various contract compliance deficiencies led us to conclude it was in the best interest of the government to compete a new contract,” said P.J. Crowley, assistant secretary of state for public affairs.
The plan to rebid the contract was earlier disclosed by the Project on Government Oversight, an independent watchdog group that in September released lurid photos and videos of ArmorGroup guards at a party.
ArmorGroup North America began protecting the Kabul embassy in 2007 as part of a contract valued at as much as $189 million over five years. It is renewed annually, and the current work expires in June 2010. The company struggled to provide English-speaking guards and was frequently understaffed. The previous company had similar issues.
The company declined to comment and referred questions to the State Department.
The decision to rebid the contract highlights the challenges the Obama administration faces in continuing to rely on such firms in Iraq and Afghanistan. There are already some 104,100 Defense Department contractors in Afghanistan, mostly local hires focused on logistics and construction.
They are expected to outnumber U.S. forces in Afghanistan even after 30,000 more troops are sent next year. Thousands more contractors work for the State Department on various rebuilding and development projects.
Story here.