FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

JUNE 3, 2014

Contact: Sarah Feldman (print) or Anamarie Rebori (broadcast) – 202-228-6263 

McCaskill Calls for Review of State and Defense Counternarcotics Contracts

Watchdog finds that the U.S. government was improperly charged more than $100 million

WASHINGTON – As Chairman of the Subcommittee on Financial & Contracting Oversight, U.S. Senator Claire McCaskill is continuing her investigation into counternarcotics contracts at both the Department of Defense (DOD) and State Department by calling for a thorough review into reports of overpayments of more than $100 million.

 

McCaskill’s letters to Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel and the State Department Inspector General follow a recent report by the DOD Inspector General finding that Northrop Grumman and its subcontractor DynCorp improperly charged the U.S. Government more than $100 million over six years under a contract to provide counternarcotics services. Like DOD, the State Department has contracts with DynCorp to provide counternarcotics services.

 

“To ensure that similar overbilling has not occurred under the State Department’s current counternarcotics contracts, I request that your office review the State Department’s current counternarcotics contracts and, if warranted, conduct a thorough audit to determine the existence and extent of overcharges,” McCaskill wrote to the State Department Inspector General.

 

McCaskill also asked DOD to explain how the overbilling occurred and how DOD plans to recover the improper charges.

 

Specifically, the report found at least 360 of 460 DynCorp employees did not meet the labor qualifications required by the DOD contract. Additionally, Northrop Grumman charged 215,298 labor hours in excess of eight hours per day from October 2007 through March 2013. The report found that Army Contracting Command contracting officials did not review invoices before approving labor charges.

 

In 2011, McCaskill released a report finding that federal agencies did not have systems in place to adequately track money spent on more than $3 billion in counternarcotics contracts or evaluate whether those contracts were achieving their goals. The report followed a 2010 hearing on the performance of counternarcotics program contractors, at which neither the State Department nor DOD could provide basic information about the contracts awarded for fighting drug production south of the U.S. border.

 

Read the letters to both the DOD and State Department HERE and HERE.

 

Click HERE to read highlights of McCaskill’s fight for stronger accountability in Washington.

 

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