Thanks to David Isenberg for pointing out this publication, and you can find his review of the document here. Probably the big one for me that just continues to boggle the mind, is that the government has known about it’s deficiencies in contractor oversight and yet they continue to not apply the proper attention to this.
Here is the quote from Dave’s assessment, and I think this says it all:
To get a sense of how nothing has changed note that in April 2009, SIGIR reported that 11 of 27 CORs surveyed stated their COR training did not fully prepare them to oversee the TWISS contractors. In the new audit 11 of 28 CORs SIGIR surveyed stated their training did not prepare them to perform COR duties on the TWISS contracts.
This is unacceptable. It truly is the definition of insanity when you continue to do the same thing over and over again, and expect to get different results. And to add to this, I continue to get emails from folks on the TWISS contracts describing deplorable business practices of the companies involved. Most contractors consider TWISS gigs as the bottom of the barrel contracting in the war, and the attrition rate is very high. I tell them to contact the SIGIR and anyone else that will listen, and often times their concerns fall on deaf ears. Or in this case, incompetent ears.
Listen, the way this should work is that a COR should be actively seeking out the input and feedback of those who work in this program, if they want to find out any wrong doing on the contract. And then once they find out about this wrong doing, then with the full power and weight of the government, they should have the ability to put that company in check. If there is no teeth within the system, then companies will get away with whatever they want to do on these contracts.
Furthermore, I have yet to hear anything from SIGIR or any CORs out there? I would think that any COR that actually cares about what is going on with the contract, or lacked certainly knowledge about how things work, would actually take the time to reach out to guys like myself or David Isenberg. Or better yet, get out of your office, and get on the ground and talk it up with the Ugandans and other contractors on these sites. Listen to their concerns, and act on it. If it is your job to manage and monitor these contracts, then do not make excuses.
Likewise, the DMCA needs to realize that you just don’t send guys out to do this work, and not give them everything they need to be successful. It’s called taking care of your people, and if they are asking for training or feel ill-prepared for the job, then the DMCA needs to do the right thing and make that happen. Because if the CORs are not able to do their job, then now you have contracts that become out of control, and security could be hurt by it. You have incidents where entire guard forces just don’t show up to work, because the company is playing games.
Another thing I would like to throw out there, once again. These companies that bid and won the contracts for TWISS, did so under the LPTA concept or lowest priced, technically acceptable contracting. I call it a race to the bottom, and I have totally protested such methods. It is just dumb, and it causes more problems than it is worth. But if the government is going to continue using LPTA, then it has to have a strong CORs force to keep on eye on this beast they created. The security of these camps depends on the effectiveness of this contract, the US tax payer demands a good value for their dollar spent, and the men and women on these TWISS contracts need to know that someone is in their corner looking out for them.
And then there is the companies?…..Well they are just big dumb animals anyways. They will do whatever is required, but if no one is tending to that cow, then that thing is going to trample all over the place and do what it wants. The buyer (the US government) needs to exercise it’s power as the consumer of these services, and demand excellence and a good service. But if you have no one watching over those services, or those that are watching those services have no idea what to look for, then that company is just going to do whatever it wants.
Finally, this is a message to law makers like Jan Schakowsky or Bernie Sanders. Instead of attacking private industry, how about attacking those government agencies tasked with managing these contracts? Or to put it in simpler terms, if your dairy cow escaped the pasture and ruined the neighbor’s flowers, do you kill that cow, or do you punish the rancher in charge of managing that cow? I mention these two law makers because they are behind an effort to destroy a strategic asset of the US called ‘ private security contractors during times of war’. Or in other words, they want to kill the dairy cow, because they suck at keeping their ranchers in line. –Matt