Fraud committed by government contractors in Iraq is a problem but isn't as severe as some critics have suggested, federal officials said Tuesday. Some House Judiciary Committee Democrats questioned the assertions, saying they felt the Justice Department is dragging its feet in pursuing some cases of alleged fraud. They also said some federal judges appear too willing to seal records in such cases, making it impossible for the public to assess the merits of whistleblowers' accusations.
Stuart W. Bowen Jr., an inspector general for Iraq reconstruction, told lawmakers that anti-fraud efforts should be better coordinated, but they nonetheless have had an impact.
``Losses to American taxpayers from fraud within reconstruction programs will likely amount to relatively small components of the overall investments in Iraq, totaling in the tens of millions'' of dollars and not in the ``hundreds of millions or billions as is sometimes imagined,'' Bowen told the Judiciary subcommittee on crime, terrorism and homeland security.
Other witnesses said the problem is worse. ``Billions of dollars are missing, and many more billions wasted,'' said Alan Grayson, a lawyer representing numerous self-described whistleblowers who have alleged fraud, under the Civil False Claims Act, by contractors including Houston-based KBR Inc.
Rather than helping pursue such charges, Grayson said, the Bush administration ``has swept cases under the rug,'' in part by persuading federal judges to seal key documents.
Bowen said much of the missing money Grayson described belonged to Iraqis, not Americans.
And Deputy Assistant Attorney General Barry M. Sabin defended the sealing of court documents, saying many cases require time to gather evidence and locate witnesses.
But Rep. Bill Delahunt, D-Mass., questioned the need for records to be sealed for years and for federal courts to sit on cases of alleged human rights abuses by government contractors in Iraq. Too often, he said, ``we don't know what the government is doing.''
Erica Razook, a lawyer for Amnesty International, complained that a U.S. Court in Virginia has yet to act on alleged human rights abuses in Iraq, including those at Abu Ghraib prison.
Sabin said he had ``the highest confidence'' the cases would be appropriately handled.
In a statement, KBR Inc. - once a subsidiary of Halliburton - said it has fully cooperated with the Justice Department ``in terms of providing documents as well as providing accessibility to KBR personnel requested for interviews. In fact, several convictions cited by DOJ have resulted from information provided by KBR.''
Poster Comment:
If the case is sealed, dollars to donuts, it's a Kosher contract.