Following President Barack Obama’s recent announcement of a change in strategy for the war in Afghanistan, U.S. Senator Claire McCaskill continued her efforts to track contracts and spending related to the U.S. wars abroad.
McCaskill questioned Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Michael Mullen on plans to improve contracting and spending accountability in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
McCaskill acknowledged that progress had been made in improving contracting accountability, citing the fact that when she first arrived in the Senate limited data on contracts related to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan was not available, but as of June 2009 we were able to know that 75,000 contractors, including 5,200 private security contractors¸ were in Afghanistan and were being tracked in a joint database.
Using the information from the database, McCaskill asked if it was intentional that as many as 50,000 general contractors and 5,000 private security contractors were Afghans. Clinton responded that it was somewhat intentional as a means of sending a message to the Afghan people and that, in some cases, it was necessary for the mission. Mullen echoed Clinton by saying that hiring Afghans also helped provide stability to local economies as well.
McCaskill also used an example of an evolving contracting situation in Iraq where opportunities for waste exist to follow up from testimony offered in June that suggested 600 positions were vacant for monitoring contracts in Iraq and Afghanistan. McCaskill asked the panel if the military had since filled all necessary monitoring positions in order to track such contracts.
Gates admitted he did not know and pledged to ensure McCaskill would receive an answer, but reaffirmed that adequately monitoring ongoing contracts was of the utmost importance to the Department of Defense.
Gates said, “As is often the case with these things, you’re probably better informed than we are, but what I will tell you is, I can almost certainly tell you we do not have as many contract monitors in Afghanistan as we want.”
